The Mets went quietly against Chris Sale and the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday night, losing 5-0.
Here are the takeaways…
-Making just his second start of the season, this time for the injured Kodai Senga, Paul Blackburn was greeted rudely by Ronald Acuña Jr. on the first pitch he threw, allowing a leadoff home run that gave the Braves a quick 1-0 lead. It was far from the end as Blackburn allowed a single and a walk before retiring his first batter of the game on a groundout that advanced the runners to second and third.
-Blackburn’s battery mate, Luis Torrens — in for Francisco Alvarez who did not have a good game defensively on Tuesday night — made a costly mistake of his own in the first inning when he touched the ball with his mask after the ball got away from on a swing-and-a-miss which is not allowed. The fielding error resulted in the same thing as a balk which scored a run and moved the runner on second base to third base.
Marcell Ozuna drove in the third run of the strange inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, Atlanta.
-To Blackburn’s credit, after that tough start to the game and capped at around 70-75 pitches, he ended up going 3.2 innings and didn’t allow another run, exiting with the Mets down 3-0. That is, until reliever Jose Butto entered the game and allowed the stranded runner to score on a wild pitch that should’ve been a passed ball on Torrens after the catcher just failed to reach for a ball inside.
Torrens made another mistake earlier in the game after he tried framing a pitch which resulted in him not catching the ball with a runner on third base. Fortunately, the runner didn’t break for home plate, although he easily could’ve.
-Opposite Blackburn was Chris Sale who entered the game with a 1.14 ERA over his last seven starts. The left-hander continued his recent dominance, outmatching the Mets over 8.2 scoreless innings. Sale allowed four hits, all singles and two by Starling Marte, entering the ninth inning as he bid for a shutout. However, a Brandon Nimmo pop fly single over third base with two outs would be it for Sale who threw 116 pitches (85 strikes).
–Jeff McNeil extended his on-base streak to 20 games, the longest active streak in the majors, following his single in the fifth inning.
-New York’s bullpen went 4.1 innings and allowed just one run, a Matt Olson moonshot off Ty Adcock in the seventh inning. It was the first run Adcock allowed as a Met this season in three innings.
Game MVP: Chris Sale
8.2 innings of shutout baseball is enough for the 36-year-old to get the honors.
Highlights
Luis Torrens touched the ball with his mask in the first inning, which allowed each runner to advance a base and the Braves to score their second run pic.twitter.com/yF1JK5g9Nf
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2025
Jeff McNeil has a 20-game on-base streak pic.twitter.com/CE5lfr0Hom
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 19, 2025
What’s next
The Mets and Braves close out their three-game series on Thursday night with a 7:15 p.m start time on SNY.
RHP Clay Holmes (7-3, 2.87 ERA) goes up against RHP Spencer Strider (1-5, 4.35 ERA).
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