Braves 5
Mets 4
ATLANTA – After serving up a first-inning grand slam to Vinny Castilla, Steve Trachsel looked like he’d be the victim of a quick TKO last night.
Yet Trachsel battled himself and the Braves on a muggy 90-degree evening when the lineup only needed four innings to catch up.
Ultimately, though, Trachsel failed himself. The Met right-hander faltered on the first pitch of the sixth, getting victimized by a 418-foot solo homer from Andruw Jones that ultimately gave Atlanta a 5-4 victory.
The Mets (29-28) fell 2½ games behind the Braves 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, lagging behind innings-eaters Pedro Astacio and Jeff D’Amico. Trachsel had worked only 63 innings, while Astacio had a staff-high 76 innings pitched and D’Amico 73.
On a night when the offense knocked the opposing starter, Kevin Millwood, out of the game within four innings, Trachsel gave himself a chance to notch a victory.
After one inning, though, the outlook was grim. 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.
Trachsel’s first pitch to Castilla was in the zone, and the Braves third baseman hit it to the opposite field down the right-field line. Off the bat, it didn’t look like a grand slam. But when the ball bounded off the foul pole a few feet above the fence, the Braves had taken a quick 4-0 lead.
Trachsel simply retreated to the back of the mound, rubbed some resin on his forearm and got back to work.
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 it at 4 as the Mets scored two runs in the third and two more in the fourth, but it was in unconventional fashion.
Rey Ordonez doubled into the left-field corner with one out in the third, but was caught in a rundown on Trachsel’s grounder back to the mound. Still, Alomar worked a nine-pitch at-bat before walking, and Timo Perez loaded the bases with a single to right.
Then things got real interesting. On a 2-2 pitch, Piazza was hit on the left hand. Although the ball appeared to only nick the catcher, he took his batting glove off halfway down the line and Bobby Valentine and a trainer came out. Piazza stayed in the game.
In the ensuing at-bat, Vaughn was hit on an 0-2 pitch, driving in the second run. He also was checked out before remaining in the game.
The next inning, the Mets tied the game and 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, then ripped a Millwood pitch to the warning track in left-center for a two-run double, plating Burnitz and Cedeno.
The Mets lost their momentum when Jones crushed a Trachsel offering into the seats to the right of dead center.
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 Ordonez and quash a two-out rally.
In the ninth, Smoltz retired Piazza, the go-ahead run, on a fielder’s choice grounder to save his 15th game.
