Max Scherzer Shaky, New York Mets' Offense Silent in 2nd Straight Loss to Braves

ATLANTA - After dropping the series opener at Truist Park on Friday, the Mets did not fare much better against the Braves the following night, losing 4-2.

Now they find themselves in second place, a game back of Atlanta with one game left in the series, and four left to play in the regular season overall.

Like Jacob deGrom the evening before, Max Scherzer didn't have his best stuff, allowing four runs on nine hits through 5.2 innings of work. Scherzer surrendered two home runs, one of which was a two-run shot to Dansby Swanson, the other a solo blast to Matt Olson.

"I was working too much east-west. I want to be working north-south. I didn't have good put away pitches. They weren't as sharp as usual," Scherzer said.

"Gotta give credit to their lineup, when I made mistakes they made me pay."

But the real story of the night was once again the Mets' offense, which mustered up eight hits, all singles, and two runs.

The Braves had 10 hits, but the difference was their lineup produced four extra-base hits, as well as two homers.

Atlanta won each of their first two games against the Mets' pair of aces, deGrom and Scherzer, who they tagged for seven earned runs and five homers.

"It feels terrible. Those are our guys. Those are our best shots and they stuffed them in our face. It doesn't feel good at all," centerfielder Brandon Nimmo said after the game.

The Mets must win on Sunday night in order to win the season series from the Braves, grab the tie breaker and control their own destiny for the division crown.

Chris Bassitt will toe the rubber to try to help his team avoid suffering a sweep and squandering away the NL East to the Braves.

"You're only as good as your next day's starting pitcher and Bassitt's been really good for us this year. We need him to go out there, do his thing and we believe we can win," Scherzer said.

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