ATLANTA — Consider the Mets ready for the Max Scherzer/Jacob deGrom portion of their week.
They get to play their pair of aces the next two days after a miserable past two. In a 5-0 loss to Atlanta on Tuesday, Taijuan Walker exited after two innings due to back spasms — the second game in a row that they dropped after their starting pitcher lasted just two innings.
The Mets’ lead in the NL East is down to 3 1/2 games heading into the back half of this four-game series (the start of an eight-game road trip that will take them to Philadelphia this weekend).
Walker’s aborted outing seemed ordinary, though his velocity was down and his command was off (two walks). He made a play to end each inning, catching Matt Olson’s pop-up in the bottom of the first and covering first base on Vaughn Grissom’s groundout in the bottom of the second.
His early exit came a night after Carlos Carrasco strained his left oblique in what became a blowout loss. He is expected to miss at least three weeks.
Dipping into his bullpen to start the third inning, manager Buck Showalter turned to righthanders R.J. Alvarez and Stephen Nogosek, who were called up just hours prior because the team needed rested relievers. They got the Mets into the seventh — and kept it reasonably close.
The first man up was Alvarez, who made his first major-league appearance since 2015 (when Atlanta’s Michael Harris II, his first batter, was 14 years old). He lasted 2 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on homers from Robbie Grossman and Matt Olson. The latter was an absolute no-doubter that went an estimated 443 feet off the roof of the restaurant/party area in rightfield.
Nogosek lasted two innings and was charged with two runs (one of which was an inherited runner that Seth Lugo allowed to score). He seemed to tire near the end, walking Ronald Acuna Jr. with one out. Showalter stuck with him — instead of going with one of the regular relievers — and it didn’t work out.
Dansby Swanson lined a single to left-centerfield. When leftfielder Tyler Naquin bobbled it, Swanson took off for second, drawing a throw, which allowed Acuna to scoot home with an insurance run. Swanson scored on Olson’s two-out single off Lugo.
What had been a mere three-run deficit going into the late innings proved insurmountable on a night when righthander Charlie Morton turned in one of his best starts of the year, going 6 2/3 shutout innings with a season-high-tying 12 strikeouts. He walked a batter and scattered three hits.
That was a drastic improvement from his first two outings against the Mets, who rocked him for 10 runs (nine earned) in 10 2/3 innings.
Morton seemed to have all of his pitches working, inducing a total of 19 swings and misses on 48 total swings — an impressive rate of 40%.
The Mets brought the potential tying run to the plate in the seventh inning, inspiring Atlanta manager Brian Snitker to pull him in favor of lefty rookie reliever Dylan Lee. Jeff McNeil, who tied a career high with four hits Monday night, lost the eight-pitch duel, swinging through a fastball on the inside edge of the plate.
