Braves 8

Mets 0

ATLANTA – The Mets flew Kris Benson via private jet into Atlanta on Friday night, tucked his locker in the same corner as Al Leiter’s and Steve Trachsel’s and watched as Ricky Bottalico volunteered his No. 34 jersey.

Indeed, they did everything possible to make Benson, one of their two new pitching saviors, completely comfortable last night. And when a few hours later, Benson zipped in his first pitch as a Met – a 93-mph called strike – it all seemed worth it.

But Benson’s final 94 pitches did not go nearly as smoothly as his first. Instead, his first start as a Met turned into his worst start of the year. While Benson didn’t pitch as terribly as his line indicated, he still surrendered seven runs in five innings in Atlanta’s 8-0 beating.

“I definitely didn’t want to write it down in the books like this,” he said.

Not that it was all Benson’s fault. The Mets can’t hit, having now mustered one run and an astonishing zero extra-base hits in their last two games at Turner Field. And although the Mets didn’t commit any errors, they failed to make several plays that could have prevented big innings.

“We’re not scoring a lot of runs and we’re not that tight defensively,” Mike Piazza said, “and that’s not a good combination.”

Neither is being eight games out of first in the NL East with 59 to play, but that’s where the Mets find themselves. At this point, considering them in the pennant race has become silly. They haven’t won a series in a month (since their Yankee sweep from July 2-4) and are only a half-game closer to first place than last.

There’s simply a lack of energy right now (“Skip said, it feels like we’re going through the motions a little bit,” Cliff Floyd said) and the Mets better find it fast. A sweep by the Braves today would be nearly catastrophic.

“It’s a big game,” said Art Howe. “We don’t want to fall nine behind. That’s a tall hill to climb.”

While Benson was one of the market’s most coveted pitchers, last night he was out-pitched by a right-handed reclamation project. Atlanta’s Jaret Wright continued to improve, suffocating the Mets on three hits and no walks over seven innings; he needed just 75 pitches to do it.

To be fair, there were moments when Benson looked every bit like a possible ace. He appears poised and polished, changes speeds well and darts his fastball around the plate.

But after opening with two scoreless innings, the Braves got to Benson in the third, scoring three runs on four hits. Benson rebounded with a 1-2-3 fourth, but in the fifth, he fell apart, surrendering four runs, including Johnny Estrada’s three-run homer to right.

Perhaps a strong effort from Benson was simply too much to ask. He had just been traded 24 hours earlier, had flown in from a different city and hadn’t arrived in Atlanta until 12:30 in the morning.

Making matters worse, Benson was facing the Braves for the third time in 11 days and tried to compensate by throwing more breaking balls. It didn’t work.

“They definitely had my number,” he said. “I didn’t pitch my game.”

KRIS CROSS

Pre-game excitement turned sour last night as newly-acquired Kris Benson was roughed up by the Braves in his debut with the Mets. Not even a visit from Mike Piazza in the third inning, when Atlanta grabbed a 3-0 lead, could stem the tide.

Benson’s line

IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

L (8-9) 5.0 7 7 7 2 4 95 4.52