Braves 5

Mets 4

ATLANTA – The moment Vinny Castilla hit a high curveball down the right-field line, Steve Trachsel headed toward home plate for a new baseball.

Trachsel’s first pitch to Castilla with the bases loaded and two outs in the first inning didn’t land foul 10 rows into the seats like the Met righty thought it would.

Instead, it improbably clanged off the right-field foul pole a few feet above the fence for a grand slam, giving Atlanta an early 4-0 lead that the anemic Mets could only catch up to but not overcome.

“I’m still shocked,” said Trachsel, who looked the part. “I can’t believe how he kept it fair.”

When Trachsel’s first pitch to Andruw Jones in the sixth was deposited 418 feet into the center-field seats, the Braves had enough to hold off the Mets, 5-4, at muggy Turner Field.

The Mets (29-28) scored a pair of runs in both the third and fourth innings to pick up Trachsel, who battled the 90-degree heat and the Braves. But they again found themselves one hit short and fell 2½ games behind Atlanta in the NL East with their third straight loss.

Of the five Met starters, Trachsel (3-6) had pitched the fewest innings through his first 11 starts. But on a night when the offense knocked the opposing starter, Kevin Millwood, out of the game within four innings, Trachsel seemed to pitch better than his line of five earned runs in six innings.

Trachsel threw 31 pitches in the first, walking Julio Franco and allowing a single to Gary Sheffield with one out and giving Jones a four-pitch free pass with two down to bring up Castilla.

“It was a good pitch. I give him credit for hitting it,” Trachsel said. “No reason to get upset about it.”

It only took Roberto Alomar, Mike Piazza and Mo Vaughn 57 games to drive in a run in the same ballgame. The trio helped tie the game, but it was in unconventional fashion.

With a man on first and two outs in the third, Alomar worked a nine-pitch at-bat before walking. Timo Perez followed by loading the bases with a single to right.

Then things got real interesting. On a 2-2 pitch, Piazza was hit on the left pinky. He took his batting glove off halfway down the line and Bobby Valentine and a trainer came out. He stayed in the game.

In the ensuing at-bat, Vaughn was hit on an 0-2 pitch, driving in the second run. He also remained in the game.

The next inning, the Mets chased Millwood. Jeromy Burnitz, in a 1-for-16 skid entering the game, singled to right and stole second. Roger Cedeno hit an infield single to short, but with two outs the two were still stuck on second and third.

Alomar fell behind in the count 0-2 before ripping a Millwood pitch to the warning track in left-center for a two-run double. But he was stranded, and that was it for the offense.

“We haven’t hit a lot with men in scoring position,” Alomar said. “It seemed like, I don’t know, we’re not getting any luck.”

In the seventh, Piazza grounded into an inning-ending double play off reliever Kevin Gryboski, and closer John Smoltz came on in the eighth to strike out Rey Ordonez and quash a two-out rally and strand two runners.

In the ninth, Smoltz whiffed Alomar on a nasty 93-mph splitter and Jay Payton on a 97-mph fastball before retiring Piazza, the go-ahead run, on a fielder’s choice grounder to save his 15th game.

“It was a combination where they made some good pitches, but I took some bad swings,” Piazza said. “I need to be more disciplined in those situations and not swing at the pitcher’s pitches. It’s just a tough stretch for us.”