Travis d'Arnaud has three RBIs vs. ex-team as Mets fall to Atlanta
Mets starting pitcher Chris Bassitt looks on as Atlanta's Austin Riley rounds the bases on his solo home run during the fourth inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
With a losing record, one of the less effective rotations in the majors and, shockingly, hitters who haven’t done much hitting, Atlanta limped into Citi Field on Monday as perhaps the Mets’ greatest test yet anyway.
It does have, after all, that championship pedigree. As the defending World Series winner and the four-time defending NL East champ, Atlanta is what the Mets aspire to be: an actual title contender, year after year.
The Mets lost to Atlanta, 5-2, in the first game of the year between a pair of teams expected to be among the best in the league. Former Met Travis d’Arnaud was the difference-maker, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two doubles, including a two-run two-bagger off Trevor May in the eighth inning moments after Mark Canha struck out to strand the bases loaded, the Mets’ last best chance to take a lead.
After facing a team featuring the likes of Ronald Acuña Jr., freshly back from his torn ACL last summer, plus Austin Riley and Matt Olson, the Mets wound up singing the praises of d’Arnaud.
“He was hitting balls that weren’t even in the strike zone,” said bench coach Glenn Sherlock, d’Arnaud’s former catching instructor and a one-night fill-in for manager Buck Showalter, who was suspended by MLB after Yoan Lopez threw at Kyle Schwarber on Sunday. “He was reaching out and hitting them where they’re not playing. Trav is a good hitter, a big-league hitter, so good for him.”
Added righthander Chris Bassitt: “He can hit any pitch. That’s extremely rare. Literally every single pitch, you gotta throw a good one. A lot of the times you have hitters who aren’t good at certain pitches, and d’Arnaud is good at literally every single pitch.”
D’Arnaud’s second double, which expanded Atlanta’s lead from one to three, left May frustrated enough to admit publicly that he has been pitching hurt, still plagued by the minor strain of his right triceps from three weeks ago.
May said he is scheduled for another MRI on Tuesday, hasn’t talked about the extent of his discomfort with team officials and isn’t sure if he’ll need to go on the injured list.
“It’s hard to compete when you’re just worried about if something is going to hurt when you throw or not,” he said. “By the end of tonight, I was just hoping that the ball was hit at somebody. That’s no way to throw at a major-league game.”
Bassitt was efficient and largely effective, holding Atlanta to three runs and six hits in seven innings. But it wasn’t enough against lefthander Max Fried (two runs, six innings) and the Atlanta bullpen.
The Mets lost the lead in the sixth when Bassitt’s bad batted-ball luck turned into two runs.
Riley led off with a single through the left side of the infield — hard, but on the ground — and was replaced at first base by Marcell Ozuna after a forceout. Ozzie Albies’ soft single to leftfield put two runners on, and D’Arnaud tied the score by looping an RBI double down the rightfield line. Adam Duvall put Atlanta ahead with a sacrifice fly.
“That ain’t going to happen a lot, but when it does, it’s baseball,” Bassitt said, explaining that the soft hits yielding runs didn’t bother him. “Albies, world-class hitter. D’Arnaud, world-class hitter. That happens. It is what it is. Make your pitches, and whatever happens to that is up to the baseball gods.”
As hot as the Mets have been in this first month, Monday provided a reminder: To be the best, you have to beat the best. They will have plenty of chances.
Atlanta is 11-13. The Mets are 16-8. “They haven’t played well yet, but we know they’re going to be there,” Showalter said before the game. “We’re just trying to get through them before they start reaching the level of play that they’re going to have.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
