ATLANTA — I've seen this horror movie before, but the Mets won't leave this haunted house alive.
The cast changes for both teams, and the sets change as the Braves move ballparks every 20 years or so. But the end result?
It's not just that the Mets came to Atlanta and lost on Tuesday night. It was all plausible. They played badly in every phase. The Braves played well. Atlanta center fielder Michael Harris was spry enough to beat the Mets and convince me I'll name my next baby Citi.
The final score for the first game of this crucial series is 5-1, and it's unclear when Game 2 will take place: either Wednesday, Thursday or as part of a doubleheader next Monday (i.e. the day after the regular season is supposed to end and the day before the playoffs are supposed to start).
The Mets' wild-card lead over the Braves was cut to one on the same day Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in preparation for Tropical Storm Helen, which could make landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. Heavy rains are expected on Wednesday and on a biblical Thursday, so Atlanta may not get the champagne downpour (if it ever does) that the Mets and owner Steve Cohen envisioned.
The Mets could clinch a wild card and a celebration if they beat the Braves twice, but if the Braves beat the Mets again they'll win the season series and the playoff tiebreaker if the teams are tied.
It's unclear when (if) that will come, but Cohen is eager to be the first Mets owner to be showered with champagne, and even though he agreed to host his 50th high school reunion at Citi Field on Saturday, he plans to miss it if the Mets win in Milwaukee that day. When the Mets were a wild card in 2022, they toasted with champagne. That's because in their penultimate series that year, they fell from first place in Atlanta, so the runner-up celebration, when it came, was subdued.
Before Tuesday's first pitch of the penultimate series of the season, Cohen insisted the misfortune of playing in the city wasn't part of the muscle memory of the current team, since so much has changed in the lineup in those two years. But everything from the ballpark to the players to Mets ownership has changed since 1998-99, when the Braves swept the Mets in the final series of 1998 to keep them from making the postseason, and then beat them in Game 6 of the NLCS in 1999.
The lineup changes, but the themes remain the same: The Braves moved to the NL East in 1994 and have since won 18 division titles and two World Series, while the Mets have two division titles but no championships. The Mets are currently 25-37 under Truist.
“We didn't play well,” Carlos Mendoza acknowledged. “We have to turn the page. This is going to be talked about because it's here in Atlanta. We have to go out and execute on it. We're still in position to go out and win the series here.”
Perhaps the Mets are in a better position to realign. Lindor, who missed eight straight starts because of a back injury, was in the starting lineup at the end of the series opener and is the favorite to start Wednesday if there is a game.
The first inning decided Tuesday's game. Spencer Schwellenbach struck out the Mets 1-2-3 on seven pitches. The Braves didn't score, but Harris fouled off five pitches with two strikes and singled, Luis Ángel Acuña failed to turn a double play and Severino threw 25 pitches.
Schwellenbach, who had risen to prominence in the minor leagues and become a savior for the starting rotation, was hitless in six at-bats with runners on in seven innings, allowing only a home run by Mark Vientos. In four innings, Severino allowed 33 foul balls, 14 of which were two-strikes, as the Braves skillfully extended their at-bats. In the third inning, the pitcher and Francisco Alvarez collided on a bunt swing, and Severino mis-threw the ball down the line. Before the inning ended, Starling Marte threw the cutoff man in the air. Meanwhile, Harris hit the first scoring double of the inning to lead off the three-run lead. Harris homered in the following inning and made a diving catch to stop Acuña's hit the next.
The Mets will face off against NL Cy Young Award front-runner Chris Sale and longtime Atlanta ace Max Fried, weather permitting.
“They're a good team,” Brandon Nimmo said, “They're not going to just roll over and die, so we're ready for the challenge.”
You know, the nightmarish killer never rolls over and dies in a movie like this. And yet, Nimmo shrugs off the ghosts of Atlanta, and he also mentions the cast change from two years ago. But that was more than two years ago. It's been 25 years since one team dominated another. Cohen, David Stearns and Mendoza's Mets are trying to prove that a new era has begun.
In horror movies, we are advised never to return to a haunted house. Now that the Metz are back, can they write another script?
