Braves 8 Mets 4
The Mets were exposed and exploited, getting hit over the head with a broom before the Braves swept them yesterday at Shea.
Their 8-4 defeat was strangely familiar. It’s how Atlanta has exposed and exploited the National League’s crummy teams since 1991.
That’s the most damning thing you can say: the Mets look no different than the rank-and-file fertilizer the sport has produced since Abner Doubleday invented the game.
When it boiled down to Mets starter Steve Trachsel pitching out of trouble and rookie reliever Jerrod Riggan needing to retire Brian Jordan, the writing was on the wall . . . literally.
The writing said “Bud Light” and it was on the left-field fence over which Jordan’s tie-breaking three-run homer off Riggan sailed in the seventh inning of a 4-4 game.
“Obviously, we’re embarrassed and frustrated,” Mike Piazza said. “We feel like we’re a better team than what we’ve shown.”
The NBA Draft hasn’t even started, and it’s already creeping up on garbage time in Flushing despite protests to the contrary. The Braves (40-34) aren’t markedly better than the Mets (33-43), some would believe.
Regardless, it’s the fifth time this season the Unamazin’s have slipped 10 games below .500. And with a current four-game losing streak, that’s an awful lot of water to tread with 86 games left and a brutal 16-game stretch of contenders on the slate.
“I hear people throwing in the towel already,” Darryl Hamilton said. “Not the guys in the clubhouse, but guys on the radio and the media and all that stuff. We’re not even to 81 games yet.”
Trachsel (1-9) fell behind 2-0 early because of leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal (career-high 4-for-5), a perpetual pest who singled, stole second and scored twice in the first three innings.
The Mets scored the next four runs, tagging Staten Island product Jason Marquis for two in the third and two more in the fifth to take the 4-2 lead. Piazza and Todd Zeile stroked RBI singles to left off Marquis (2-1), who made his third start of the season and struggled through his six-inning stint.
“We’re glad to get a pick-me-up here against the Mets,” said Marquis, who popped the question to high-school sweetheart Debbie Masseria on Friday.
Trachsel couldn’t pitch with a lead, one reason why he’s won once in 10 decisions despite a $3 million salary. Javy Lopez hit an opposite-field homer in the sixth to pull the Braves within 4-3. Then Furcal got things going in the seventh.
Using excellent bat control, Furcal bunted inside the third-base line but wide of a charging Robin Ventura, winding up with a bunt double.
“I’ve never seen that before in my life,” said Trachsel, on the hook for six earned runs on 11 hits over 61/3 innings.
B.J. Surhoff wasted little time tying the game at 4-4 with an RBI single. Trachsel was pulled after a fielder’s-choice grounder and an intentional walk to Chipper Jones.
“I took it personally,” Jordan said of the intentional walk.
Riggan, called up from Triple-A Norfolk before the game, was working on four hours’ sleep. Turk Wendell and Rick White, who blew up in the past two days, were unavailable, leaving Riggan as the only fresh reliever.
“I thought I’d catch lightning in a bottle, and I got burned instead,” Mets manager Bobby Valentine said.
