The New York Mets are Metsing extra hard these days, and the Atlanta Braves are the primary benefactors.
The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are playing a doubleheader this Saturday. For the Mets, the goal was simple: avoid the embarrassment of Friday's 7-0 shutout loss to their league-leading division rivals.
Well, uh, goal not achieved.
The Braves won 21-3 in game one of the doubleheader, ringing in football season with a steeper margin of victory than the Falcons' preseason opener. That's three touchdowns, a cool 18 points between the Braves and the lowly field goal-scoring Mets. All of New York's points came in the eighth inning. Otherwise, it was a scoreless affair for the boys from Queens.
Hopefully the Jets and Giants can find actually pay dirt this weekend.
New York Mets get embarrassed at home in 21-3 loss to Atlanta Braves
The Braves put together the most complete display of baseball prowess you will see all season. Matt Olson made his MVP case with two homers. Austin Riley hit another deep bomb in his follow-up to Friday's two-home run game. Ozzie Albies, Sean Murphy, and newcomer Nicky Lopez all hit homers, too.
It was a special night for Lopez, in his first appearance with the Braves. The former Royals outfielder accumulated four hits, five RBIs, and three runs — not to mention a perfect 0.00 ERA in one inning pitched when he closed the ninth inning on the mound. Shohei Ohtani can step aside, the MLB's next two-way star has arrived.
On the actual pitching front, Braves starter Allan Winans — in his second MLB game ever — tossed seven scoreless innings against the team that drafted him. The Mets shipped him to Atlanta for $24,500 in the 2021 Minor League Draft. Call it revenge, call it poetry, it all counts as a W in the record book.
All of this, of course, left MLB Twitter ripe for the picking.
The Mets will look to rebound in the second half of the doubleheader Saturday night, but the damage is done. New York is openly embracing the tank and positioning itself for contention a few years down the road, when hopefully the Braves have cooled off a bit. Until then, it's safe to say New York fans will not hear the end of this. Nor will the Mets, who are shamelessly stealing pages from the Braves' team-building playbook.