Mets dealt season-high 6th straight loss by longtime nemesis

ATLANTA -- As Carlos Mendoza stepped into the visiting manager’s office at Truist Park earlier this week, his mind immediately flicked back to the final day of last season, when the Mets made an unscheduled trip south to try, once and for all, to exorcise their demons in Atlanta. Mendoza recalled sitting in that office, celebrating with Mets executives after clinching a playoff berth on a late Francisco Lindor homer.

This Tuesday, Mendoza said, “I walked into the office and I had chills, memories, right away.

“But then you turn it to, ‘What do we need to do today to take care of business today?’ This is a pretty important series. That’s a really good team.”

What unfolded over the ensuing three days was the stuff of Gothic horror. In a city that’s witnessed an inordinate number of their franchise lowlights, the Mets lost three consecutive games to their historic foil, the Braves, who punctuated the turn of events with a 7-1 blowout win in Thursday’s finale. It was the Mets’ season-high sixth consecutive loss.

“Listen -- no matter if we were in Atlanta, or we’re heading to Philadelphia now, those are good teams and you need to play good baseball in order to beat them,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “We didn’t play good enough baseball all around this time through.”

Atlanta, though, has a way of inspiring dread like no other town. On this particular trip south, the Mets placed two pitchers on the injured list, used Friday’s probable starter in emergency relief and made plans to call up two pitchers with bloated ERAs from the Minors. Francisco Lindor went 0-for-the-series. Juan Soto spent the eighth inning of the finale listening to “Over-rated!” chants from the Truist Park crowd.

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The last time the Mets lost six straight was in the weeks following their 2023 Trade Deadline sell-off. Emotionally speaking, they have not endured this sort of hardship in more than a year, when their run of poor play inspired a now-famous team meeting.

“It’s not ideal,” starting pitcher Clay Holmes said. “We know that.”

Holmes became the latest Mets starter to succumb to whatever’s been afflicting this entire starting staff. He walked a career-high six batters, including the final man he faced with the bases loaded. The first reliever out of the bullpen, Huascar Brazobán, threw four consecutive balls to force in another run before allowing four of his own in less than an inning.

Afterward, the Mets bandied about various theories as to why this is happening. Certainly, injuries to Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill haven’t helped the state of things, though neither had been scheduled to pitch in Atlanta. Holmes chalked up the collective struggles to a point in the season when teams begin to develop more sophisticated scouting reports on pitchers. But if that’s the case, the Mets haven’t been able to leverage them in quite the same way as their opponents.

Nimmo and Mendoza settled on a more tried-and-true mantra.

“It’s part of 162,” the manager said. “From the beginning, we all knew that it was going to be a fight, it was going to be a battle. And here we are, going through a rough stretch.”

In the short-term, things don’t exactly grow easier for the Mets, who traveled to Philadelphia late Thursday night in advance of a Friday date with perennial Cy Young candidate Zack Wheeler. Because the Mets had to use their Plan A starter, Justin Hagenman, in emergency relief against the Braves, they’ll turn to rookie Blade Tidwell for that opening game. In a spot start earlier this year, Tidwell allowed six earned runs over 3 2/3 innings. In his most recent Minor League start last week, Tidwell allowed … six earned runs over 3 2/3 innings.

Next week, the Mets will activate Frankie Montas and his 12.05 Minor League ERA under similar circumstances.

But this is where the Mets are -- a long way from celebrating in the visiting manager’s office in Atlanta. That’s not to say they can’t get back to that place. They absolutely can, provided they’re able to weather this storm.

“I do not think that just because we came in here and got swept that it’s a representation of, ‘Oh well, we’re back to Step 1 of trying to overcome the Braves,’” Nimmo said. “I still think we’re a good team. I think Philadelphia’s a great team that we’re about to play. And it’s going to take good baseball in order to beat them, and in order to beat anybody that we play right now.”