ATLANTA — The Mets have faced a lot of uncertainty this season, but never this much.
They need only two wins over the Atlanta Braves this week to clinch a playoff spot, but their NL East foes bested them 5-1 on Tuesday night at Truist Park. To make matters worse, a hurricane is headed directly toward Georgia and MLB has yet to make any contingency plans.
It’s unclear if the series can even resume as scheduled with heavy rain and winds forecasted for the rest of the week.
Spencer Schwellenbach shut the Mets out over 6 1/3 innings before giving up a home run to Mark Vientos. Meanwhile, the Mets fell flat. Luis Severino lasted only four innings, though the defense behind him didn’t help his cause. A sloppy third inning did him and the Mets (87-70) in, with the Braves scoring three runs and to give Schwellenbach some run support.
The right-hander then retired 10 of the next 11 hitters he faced until Vientos teed off on the first pitch he saw in the seventh, sending it into the Chop House in right field.
The third inning started with an easy out when Orlando Arcia hit a dribbler up the third base line, but Severino and catcher Francisco Alvarez both went for the ball. They collided with one another and a rattled Severino overthrew first base. Arcia reached second on the error, leaving him able to score easily on Michael Harris II’s double to right field. Severino gave up a third straight hit to Ozzie Albies, who took second on the throw when Starling Marte overthrew the cutoff man and went straight to Alvarez.
The throw was short and Alvarez’s throw to second was late. Albies was safe at second and Harris was safe at home.
The Mets started getting relievers ready with Severino’s pitch count rapidly increasing.
With one out, Severino walked Matt Olson to put runners on the corners. Jorge Soler looked at strike 3, but the damage wasn’t done. Ramon Laureano poked an opposite-field single through the right side to score Albies. He then stole second without so much as an attempt by the Mets to catch him.
Former Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud lined out to center field to end the inning with his old team down 3-0. Severino threw 33 pitches, putting him at 71 through only three innings.
Severino was nearly out of the fourth with two outs and Harris at 1-2. The right-hander couldn’t finish him off. Harris tattooed a 96 MPH fastball to give the Braves (86-71) a 4-0 lead. The center fielder went 3-for-4 with a single, a double, a home run and two RBI.
Ryne Stanek gave up a leadoff home run in the fifth after taking over for Severino (11-7), who was charged with four earned runs on seven hits, walked one and struck out five.
Schwellenbach (8-7) gave the Mets little to work with, holding them to only one run on three hits, walking one and striking out four over seven stellar innings. He came off the field to an ovation by a sellout crowd of 40,103.
It wasn’t a performance that instilled confidence in a playoff run. It was reminiscent of the 2022 series in Atlanta when the Mets needed only a single win to clinch the NL East and were swept in three games. There are two games left in the series and five in the regular season, but there are serious questions about when and where those two games will be played.
