Wash, rinse, repeat.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Braves pitched decently enough, but a lifeless offense prevented any chance of winning the series as Atlanta fell to New York, 4-0, on Thursday night at Citi Field.
It was 12-up, 12-down for both clubs in the first two innings, but there was a really unfortunate moment in the third. Mets starter Griffin Canning appeared to tear his Achilles while coming off the mound and needed to be helped off the field. It was shades of Mike Soroka in 2020. The Mets are calling it an ankle injury for now, but he’ll undergo testing. The injury turned it into an unexpected bullpen game for New York.
The Mets struck in the fourth as Tyrone Taylor hit a misplaced 0-2 slider from Holmes to deep right field to plate Juan Soto. New York added another run in the fifth on a two-out single from Pete Alonso. Not that it mattered with the state of Atlanta’s offense, but two more scored against Dylan Dodd in the seventh for the nail in the coffin.
Holmes was tiptoeing base runners pretty often, but he ended up tossing five effective innings. He surrendered the two runs on six hits and three walks, striking out six in the process. It was more of the same for the Atlanta Braves in the year 2025—unable to pick up their starting pitcher with an inept offense.
The Braves had three singles. They had zero walks. They made 15 consecutive outs from the fifth to ninth innings. For a broken offense, this was as broken as they’ve looked all season.
The Braves now head home for a nine-game, 10-day home stand that they really need to take advantage of. First up are the Phillies, who are coming off an excruciating sweep to the Astros in which they only scored one run while giving up five across three games. It’ll be Bryce Elder against rookie Mick Abel on Friday night.