Peterson's Struggles Reemerge; Braves' Offense Breaks Out For 20 Runs In Route Of Mets

The ice cold Atlanta Braves offense broke out against the Mets' pitching staff on Wednesday night with 20 runs on 20 hits in a 20-2 win.

After three-straight impressive starts, posting a 1.08 ERA in 16.2 innings, Mets left-hander David Peterson's struggles reemerged.

The Mets' offense got off to a fast start against Braves pitcher Max Fried when Pete Alonso crushed his 13th home run of the season with a two-run shot to put them up 2-0 early.

Alonso takes Fried deep to put the #Mets up 2-0 early pic.twitter.com/WW09ZlvYXw
— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) June 30, 2021

However, the Braves' offense also busted out of the gate quickly versus Peterson. The red-hot Ronald Acuna Jr. blasted his 22nd homer of the year to lead things off, and two batters later, Ozzie Albies knocked in Freddie Freeman to tie things up.

Luckily, Michael Conforto made a great diving grab in right field to get Peterson out of the inning after getting knocked around a bit.

Great catch by Conforto to get Peterson out of the inning #LGM pic.twitter.com/ScoVkHIVvN
— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) June 30, 2021

Following an eight-pitch second, Peterson ran into trouble again in the third, which resulted in an Austin Riley two-run single to give the Braves a 4-2 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, Peterson's rough outing came to a head, allowing a leadoff double, his second wild pitch of the evening and an RBI single, as the Braves extended their lead to 5-2.

Peterson exited the game with right side soreness without recording an out in his final inning of work. Regardless, manager Luis Rojas was likely going to pull him anyway.

The lefty lasted just three innings on 57 pitches. He was ultimately charged with five-earned runs.

Relief pitcher Sean Reid-Foley entered in his place, but was unable to stop the bleeding. Reid-Foley threw away a double play ball on a bunt, before allowing an RBI single to Freddie Freeman.

But the Braves weren't finished there. Albies, Riley, Dansby Swanson and Abraham Almonte drove in six more runs to increase the Braves' lead to 11-2.

The Mets pulled Reid-Foley, who was charged with four runs, in favor of rookie Thomas Szapucki. In his major league debut, Szapucki recorded the final two outs and gave up an RBI groundout, which was charged to Reid-Foley.

Szapucki pitched a total of 3.2 innings in relief, allowing three runs on six hits, with two homers surrendered.

In the bottom of the eighth, outfielder Albert Almora took the mound in a 14-2 game and allowed six more runs.

Atlanta scored 20 unanswered runs against the Mets, who initially led 2-0 in this contest.

The Mets' lead in the NL East has shrunk to just two games, following another Washington Nationals win tonight.

Ace Jacob deGrom will take the mound tomorrow, as the Amazins' attempt to take two out of three from the Braves after Wednesday's blow out loss.