New York Mets offense explodes in 11-10 loss to the Atlanta Braves

The New York Mets’ bats came to play Friday night. Home runs, RBIs, and walks, oh my! It still wasn’t enough to pull out a win in Atlanta. 

After two disastrous offensive games against the Boston Red Sox, the New York Mets needed some offensive production Friday night. That’s exactly what they got.

The offense came early and often from the Mets, but it just wasn’t enough. As always seems to be the case, the Mets failed to get the clutch hits when they mattered most.

That poor hitting late in the game, combined with a bullpen blow-up, cost the Mets Friday night.

Home runs

The Mets fell down early against the Braves. It wasn’t until the fourth inning that the offense picked up. J.D. Davis went yard to get things going—a two-run shot that tied the game.

Davis’s home run was a catalyst for the Mets’ offense. Soon after Robinson Cano went yard, then Amed Rosario followed suit. It’s clear that even if the Mets never figure out how to hit with runners in scoring position, they have too much power for the offense to remain stagnant.

On Friday night, it was the catalyst that propelled the offense, but there have been nights early in the season that home runs have been the team’s only offense. If home runs are going to be the Mets’ primary way of producing runs, they are going to need a lot more from guys like Pete Alonso and Wilson Ramos, who have had nonexistent power to start 2020.

Runners in scoring position

The Mets have struggled all season with runners in scoring position. Entering the night, the Mets were hitting just .217 with RISP. They changed their fortunes Friday.

The Mets were 4-for-8 with RISP Friday night, led by Davis and Cano. As part of a six-run fifth inning, Yoenis Cespedes and Cano came up with huge RBI knocks. Alonso and Michael Conforto also earned RBIs by walking with the bases loaded. Davis later extended the lead with a two-out bases hit.

In a span of three innings, from the fourth to the sixth, the Mets put up 10 runs. Home runs, walks, hitting with runners in scoring position—the Mets did it all. The Braves had no way to stop this offensive outburst.

However, the offense was shortlived, and that really just shows what the Mets offense is in 2020: a flash in the pan with little substance. That’ll win them a lot of games, but close games remain out of reach.

Late innings

The Mets offense disappeared in the last three innings. They had just one base runner in the seventh and eighth, an infield single from Andres Gimenez. When they were up 10-5 and 10-6, that didn’t really matter. When the Braves mounted a massive comeback and jumped out to an 11-10 lead, the Mets’ lack of clutch hitting came back to haunt them again.

They had a chance in the top of the ninth to get even. With two outs, the Mets had the tying run on second for Wilson Ramos. The buffalo was unable to get the job done. Ramos is now 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in 2020.

This is the third straight game the Mets left the game-tying run on base in the ninth inning. The Mets were special in 2019 because of their late-inning heroics and never-say-die attitude. That hasn’t been the case so far in 2020. Can they recapture that magic?