Everything was going so well for the Mets – apparently too well.
They were crushing the Braves. Kodai Senga was dealing. Citi Field felt like one big party.
That was Friday night.
Then, came the top of the sixth inning of a lopsided game.
Senga, making his first start of the season, suffered a regular season-ending, high-grade left calf strain while trying to get out of the way of an infield popup.
They won that game, but lost the next two in feeble fashion, having to settle for a disappointing split that left the Braves leaving Queens feeling good after such a poor start to the weekend.
David Peterson’s fourth-inning implosion put the Mets in a hole and new reliever Ryne Stanek made a poor first impression.
The suddenly ice-cold offense remained comatose in a depressing 9-2 defeat, and had gone 20 innings without scoring a run before Pete Alonso’s two-run shot in the eighth.
Peterson cruised through the first three innings, allowing just an Austin Riley single.
But he started the fourth by walking Riley, and it fell apart from there.
Marcell Ozuna dropped in a soft single to right field and Matt Olson crushed a hanging slider 426 feet, giving the Braves a 3-0 lead.
Peterson, losing command of the strike zone, was fortunate to get out of the inning with just one run scoring.
The Mets, meanwhile, were blowing scoring chances.
They wasted leadoff doubles in the second, third and fifth innings.
Their best chance came in the second, with two on and none out for the top of the batting order. But the Mets came up empty.
Over the first four frames, they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
They finally got a hit with a man in scoring position in the fifth, but Tyrone Taylor was thrown out at the plate on Ben Gamel’s single.
Any thoughts of a comeback ended in the seventh, when Stanek was lit up for a pair of home runs by Orlando Arcia and Riley.
The right-hander has now allowed runs in four consecutive outings, three with his former team, the Mariners.
Jake Diekman tossed gasoline onto the fire, allowing a two-run shot to Ramon Laureano in the eighth.
The loudest cheers came in the bottom of the eighth, when new addition Jesse Winker came up to pinch hit. He promptly struck out, and heard a few jeers.
It was that kind of day for the Mets.