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Carlos Mendoza didn’t even see it happen. Pete Alonso, from his perch at first base, was waiting for a throw and couldn’t tell that Griffin Canning had crumbled to the ground with what the Mets fear is an Achilles injury once he landed. 

But then they saw Canning laying on the grass with his left leg in the air. Then, they saw the Mets’ early season success story in obvious pain, placing both hands on his head, and hobbling off the field with help on each side in the third inning Thursday.

The Mets have encountered plenty of rotation issues — with shaky starts and injuries stringing together — the last two weeks, and their latest, this one involving Canning, could be the most serious. 

Canning was undergoing an MRI, Mendoza said following the 4-0 win over the Braves, and the Mets were waiting on the results.

He officially exited with a left ankle injury, but Mendoza confirmed the Mets feared it involved his Achilles.

Before his exit, Canning tossed 2 ²/₃ scoreless innings, a promising sign after a rocky June. But when Atlanta shortstop Nick Allen hit a grounder to Francisco Lindor with one out in the frame, Canning stuck his left foot into the mound and everything changed. 

“For a starting pitcher, or for anyone, to do that, like where they’re not getting up by themselves, I mean, it’s obviously, you kinda know something’s not just off but really, really wrong,” Alonso said. “… It sucks. It’s awful.” 

Canning opened the season with a 2.47 ERA through his first 10 starts, emerging as the latest Mets pitcher to revive his career in Queens on a one-year, $4.5 million deal that followed a 2024 campaign where he collected a 5.19 ERA.

His six outings entering Thursday, though, resulted in a 6.47 ERA and questions about whether he’d remain in the rotation or shift to the bullpen once the Mets had all their pitching options available.

His start against the Braves served as a chance to fix that outlook, and after surrendering just one hit through the first nine batters he faced, Canning appeared on track to do that. 

Instead, his injury adds another wrinkle to the Mets’ pitching decisions, continuing to complicate everything for the group that entered Thursday with the lowest ERA in baseball (3.13) among starters this season.

They got Frankie Montas back from a lat strain for his first start of the season earlier this week, but they also watched Kodai Senga (right hamstring strain) and Tylor Megill (right elbow sprain) hit the injured list over the last two weeks. Sean Manaea, who hasn’t pitched this season after sustaining an oblique injury in spring training, complained about elbow discomfort following his most recent rehab outing, received a cortisone shot and just resumed throwing Thursday — with the hopes of making another rehab start next week. 

Canning will be the next to join them on the injured list in perhaps the most devastating pitching hit the Mets have absorbed this year. 

“Horrible,” Mendoza said. “Sucks. You hate to see it. … You feel for the guy, and we just gotta wait now.”