Perhaps these seven games against the best the division can offer will be revealing.
The Mets hope the first game wasn’t.
Carlos Mendoza’s group started what could be a telling week against a couple of contenders by not yet swinging quite like one in a 4-2 loss to the Braves in front of 23,355 at Citi Field on Friday.
One quiet night from their offense and one poor four-batter stretch from Jose Quintana ensured the Mets (18-19) have begun a three-game series with the Braves, which will be followed by four against the best-in-baseball Phillies, on the wrong foot.
“Obviously, you’re playing two good teams, they’re in our division,” Mendoza said after the Mets dropped a seventh game at home against Atlanta in their past nine. “The way we treat it is you got to go out every day and get W’s.
“We didn’t do that today, and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
The Mets’ offense was not good enough to beat a legitimate National League threat, finishing with four hits and just two runs on a seventh-inning solo shot from Francisco Lindor and an RBI single from Pete Alonso in the ninth.
Alonso’s hit allowed the Mets to get the tying run to the plate against Raisel Iglesias, and J.D. Martinez showed hope in hooking a would-be homer foul down the left-field line. But Martinez then flew out to end it.
The Mets, who have been awful, excellent and OK, respectively, to start their season, are trying to show they should be taken seriously.
That mission did not go smoothly against veteran Charlie Morton, who was excellent over seven innings in which he allowed four base runners and never got into trouble after the second inning.
In that second, Alonso (who is 4-for-9 with three extra-base hits in his past two games) smacked a leadoff double and moved to third on a ground out.
After a Jeff McNeil walk, Harrison Bader grounded softly to third with the contact play on, which led to Alonso getting thrown out at home.
Brett Baty struck out in the final Mets at-bat with runners in scoring position until the ninth.
“I thought the first couple of innings we had some good at-bats. Couldn’t come through,” Mendoza said of an offense that was silenced by Morton. “Got some runners on, and then after that I thought we got a little aggressive. We chased, and then [Morton] found a rhythm.”
Playing in a persistent drizzle in a game whose first pitch was delayed by 55 minutes, the Mets would have needed near perfection from their pitching staff to have a chance. Quintana could not deliver.
Quintana allowed four runs in five innings — all within a span of four batters in the third inning — in his second consecutive subpar start. After a mostly strong beginning to his campaign, the lefty has let up 12 runs in his past 7 ²/₃ innings to raise his ERA to 5.44.
The veteran was rolling, having allowed just one hit over his first 2 ²/₃ innings — a single from Travis d’Arnaud, who was erased on a double play — before getting blasted — and blasted, and blasted — with two outs in the third inning.
Ronald Acuña Jr. demolished a no-doubt, 461-foot shot to the back of the batters’ eye in center field.
Two pitches later, it was Ozzie Albies who smacked a dinger.
Quintana then walked Austin Riley, which prompted a mound visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner that did not work: The next pitch, a middle-of-the-plate sinker, Matt Olson crushed to right-center for a 4-0 lead that felt much larger.
Quintana bounced back and did well to get through five innings, but the damage was done.
“Results don’t show probably how I threw the ball,” said Quintana, who was unhappy with his execution in that stretch but otherwise felt he threw the ball well.
The Queens crowd was quiet until the eighth, when a fan rushed on the field, traversed the outfield and darted onto the infield trying to elude security. One guard made a shoestring tackle down the third-base line, and the fan was ushered off.
That guard finished with three fewer hits than the Mets, who could not begin an interesting May stretch with a statement.
“We want to play well against everybody,” Alonso said in minimizing the magnitude of the next week of play. “It’s a long season, and we want to be able to grab one of those playoff spots by the end of the year.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]