NEW YORK – After reaching a high point in their rocky early season by winning three of five games topped by a one-hit shutout against the Mets on Tuesday night, the Braves came crashing back to earth Wednesday afternoon.
The Mets cranked out four homers in the first five innings against Jhoulys Chacin and rolled to a 8-0 rout at Citi Field as a mostly encouraging 3-4 road trip for the Braves ended with a resounding thud.
Rookie left-hander Steven Matz (4-1) dominated the Braves, limiting them to two hits with eight strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. They got two-out singles from Chacin in the third inning and Erick Aybar in the eighth.
“Pitching wins, right?” said embattled Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, who watched Matt Wisler hold the Mets to one hit in eight scoreless innings Tuesday, then watched Chacin have an outing at the other end of the pitching spectrum. “We had a great performance by Wis last night, and pitching wins ballgames, really. And today — Chacin’s been great; this might have been his poorest start.
“We fall right behind the eight-ball right away, and offensively we just couldn’t get anything going.”
The only other Brave to reach base was Freddie Freeman, who was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning and singled with two out in the ninth.
Chacin (1-2) gave up eight runs, seven hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings, with all but one of the runs scoring via home runs. The Mets scored 12 runs in the series and had seven homers, one more homer than the Braves have hit all season.
“I gave up three homers on three cutters (cut fastballs),” said Chacin, who had a 3.27 ERA and no homers allowed in his previous four starts. “I was just leaving pitches in the middle. Not too many things were working for me today. I’m just going to forget about today’s game and work for my next start.”
Chacin had never surrendered than three homers in a game before Wednesday, when he gave up a pair to Lucas Duda and one apiece to Rene Rivera and Asdrubal Cabrera. Rivera’s second-inning homer snapped a 17-inning scoreless streak by the Mets, who hadn’t scored in the series since a three-homer, four-run first inning Monday against Mike Foltynewicz.
The Braves, who have a majors-worst 7-20 record, completed a three-city trip to Boston, Chicago and New York against teams that were a collective 22 games over .500 before Wednesday. They split two games apiece against the Red Sox and Cubs before dropping two of three against the Mets.
The Mets have won 13 of 16 games and clinched a sixth consecutive series win for the first time since 2006.
“Throw today out, and we definitely competed in every (other) ballgame,” catcher Tyler Flowers said. “Had a couple of wins on the road against a couple of tough teams. I think we’ve got a lot of fight in us. Our record stinks, but I think we’re definitely a much better team than where we sit right now.”
It was the second 3-4 trip of the season for the Braves, who are a staggering 1-10 at home. They open a six-game homestand Friday against the Diamondbacks, with the Phillies to follow. Arizona is the second team the Braves have faced all season that didn’t have a winning record entering Wednesday.
“Had a chance to win the series today,” Gonzalez said. “We had the Red Sox, the Cubs, and (the Mets) — you get three wins, you feel like it’s a pretty good road trip. … We played good baseball in Chicago. We played a good game here yesterday, and we won a good game against the Red Sox. Yeah, I think it’s encouraging that we’re playing well.”
The Mets had three two-out homers in the first three innings, one of those by Duda, who added a solo homer in the fifth to push the lead to 7-0. That gave him his 14th career multi-homer game and seven homers for the season, one more than the Braves have.
Wilmer Flores’ two-out RBI double in the fifth inning pushed the lead to 8-0 and was the first of the Mets’ 12 runs in the series that scored on something other than a homer.
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