ATLANTA — Charlie Morton is an excellent pitcher, generally even an amazing one.
But when the 38-year-old Braves’ starter picked the Mets aside on Tuesday evening, it appeared like there was one thing else plaguing the orange and blue apart from Morton’s curveball.
As Atlanta sailed to a 5-0 win, the Mets misplaced one other beginning pitcher to harm. Taijuan Walker adopted Carlos Carrasco’s two-inning exit on Monday with one in every of his personal. It was a low-grade indirect pressure for Carrasco, whereas the Mets are pinning Walker’s quick evening on again spasms.
“I tried to bend over, and when I tried to come back up, it just locked up on me,” Walker mentioned of his again. “I’ve never had anything like this before. The training staff is not too concerned about it, so we’ll get an MRI and see how I feel in the morning.”
Showalter was requested if there’s any concern about Walker, whose harm doesn’t appear to be one thing that shall be debilitating.
“Sure there is,” he responded with a cocked eyebrow. “There always is when you have to take a pitcher out of the game. Of course there is. But he’s had similar things that resolved fairly quickly. I hope that’s the case.”
Tuesday evening’s loss also can largely be pinned on these again spasms, which despatched Buck Showalter scrambling to the nameless a part of his bullpen. R.J. Alvarez, referred to as up from Triple-A a couple of hours earlier than first pitch, needed to take the primary shift. The second batter he confronted was Robbie Grossman, a deadline acquisition for Atlanta who, statistically talking, is among the many 20 worst hitters within the sport this 12 months (minimal 300 plate appearances).
Grossman’s 105 mile per hour, no-doubt dinger definitely didn’t appear to be it got here from one of many worst hitters within the league.
That missile into proper discipline put the Braves forward by one, and a few stellar protection from the Mets helped briefly restrict the harm. Catcher Michael Perez fielded a wayward Alvarez pitch off the brick backstop and threw out Ronald Acuna Jr. attempting to advance to second, and second baseman Jeff McNeil ended the inning with a brilliant spectacular operating catch into shallow proper.
Good protection can solely take you to this point, although, particularly when Matt Olson related for a two-run shot off Alvarez the following inning and the Mets’ hitters had been zapped of their skills. Morton seemed like a a lot youthful man on Tuesday. The right-hander who debuted earlier than Obama was elected (the primary time) struck out 12 Mets and solely let 4 attain base.
Four of these Okay’s had been courtesy of his sinister curveball, which he trusted on 48 of his 97 pitches. The ovation Morton obtained on his approach out was well-deserved and his outing was paying homage to the playoff performances that made him well-known. Starling Marte, Pete Alonso, Daniel Vogelbach and Jeff McNeil every struck out twice in opposition to Morton.
“He just executed,” Francisco Lindor mentioned about Morton. “He’s really good. When he executes, he’s even better. Hats off to him, and their whole pitching staff today, they did a good job.”
This Mets’ season stuffed with peaks is at the moment caught in one in every of its uncommon valleys. Injuries will do this to you, and two beginning pitchers taking place in lower than 48 hours is certainly suboptimal, which can have taken a psychological toll on the offense. Again, Morton was incredible, however a number of the swings from the Mets had been uncharacteristic of the bunch that gained 75 of its first 115 video games.
“Nobody’s robotic,” Showalter mentioned. “Sure, everything affects. Everybody is a human being, but we’ve also had things like that with injuries and different things all through the year. It’s part of the job description.”
“It’s part of adversity,” Lindor added.
Injuries performed a task within the poor offense too, because the eight and 9 hitters within the order had been each within the Mets’ beginning lineup for the primary time. Deven Marrero, batting eighth, and Michael Perez, hitting ninth, weren’t a part of the plan as lately as three days in the past.
Stephen Nogosek, identified extra for his lovely mustache than his pitching, took the ball after Alvarez and chewed via two innings. A slight silver lining for the Mets is the truth that they received via these first two video games in Atlanta, each uncompetitive losses, with out fully overworking their bullpen.
“Nogo was really good tonight,” Showalter mentioned. “That was a real shot in the arm for us.”
Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino and Trevor May are all contemporary for the ultimate two video games, when the Mets will attempt to salvage a break up on this sequence. They additionally do not need an off day till subsequent Wednesday, with the Phillies and Yankees of their path, so protecting as many relievers as contemporary as doable till then shall be a precedence.
The Mets have been punched within the mouth for the final two nights. There’s no approach round it. All of the gamers are human, and due to this fact not resistant to the dangerous emotions that include watching their teammates hit the coach’s desk.
Fortunately for them, identical to they dreamt of in the course of the chilly, disorienting days of the MLB lockout, these video games shall be pitched by Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com