Lindor, Alonso's blasts can't help Mets overcome late rally

ATLANTA -- For a good portion of Tuesday night’s game, it appeared that the Mets might be about to turn their recent frustrations -- both overall and at Truist Park -- upside down. Instead, a dispiriting sixth inning on the mound and a quiet last six innings at the plate added up to a 6-4 loss to the rival Braves after a 1-hour, 40-minute weather delay in the opener of a key divisional series.

Here are four takeaways from the defeat, New York’s fourth straight, which sent the Mets 6 1/2 games behind the division-leading Braves.

Carlos Carrasco is improved, but maybe not all the way back.
Through five innings, Carrasco looked like the pitcher who won 15 games last year, who turned in consecutive quality starts before Tuesday. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was out of the game and charged with four runs.

Carrasco was keeping the ball on the ground through five, holding the powerful Braves at bay. But a leadoff walk to Matt Olson in the sixth mushroomed quickly into a decisive rally, with back-to-back doubles chasing Carrasco.

“I think the big one was the walk,” he said. “Start the inning with the walk and everything got out of hand right there.”

It was clearly a more effective performance than some of his earlier struggles, but the line still won’t leave him feeling great.

One inning does not constitute a breakout
In the third inning, the Mets’ offense was very good. In every other inning, it was not.

Omar Narváez returned to the lineup with a single, starting a four-run third that included two-run homers by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Lindor’s long ball came after he had been 1-for-19 over his previous five games.

And Alonso was clearly feeling good after his dinger, as he was chirping “throw it again” at Braves starter Bryce Elder, presumably referring to the sliders that he and Lindor connected on.

Then… silence. The Mets tallied one hit, one walk and one reached-on-error the rest of the game. That extended their string to seven straight games without scoring more than four runs, a streak that needs to end for them to get going.

“I’m sure at some point in the year we’re going to start stringing hits together,” Lindor said. “We’re going to start driving in runs in high leverage situations. … And we’re going to force them to use another bullpen arm. That’s going to happen. That’s coming. It’s going to happen. I know we’re capable of doing that.”

The margins are very thin right now
The Mets were charged with only one error on Tuesday, but nonetheless this wasn’t their sharpest game.

In the decisive sixth, little things added up. Carrasco couldn't quite finish off Olson to start the inning, getting two strikes before walking him. Austin Riley’s double to left came with help from a questionable throw to third. And reliever Drew Smith got two outs before allowing a Marcell Ozuna double and an Orlando Arcia single that ultimately gave Atlanta the lead.

“You’ve got to get three outs,” Smith said. “Obviously getting the first two is big, but I struggled to get Ozuna and Arcia.”

It’s those fine margins -- turning plays that should be outs into outs, finishing off hitters, getting out of innings -- where a team looking to find its groove needs to capitalize.

Still, it could be a lot worse
There’s a reason the Mets brought in Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, and it’s for series like this one. Big series against fellow contenders, especially in hostile environments.

They turn to Scherzer, who has been brilliant lately, for Wednesday’s second game of the set. Then they start Verlander. You want momentum? That’s where momentum comes from. That, and maybe Alonso and Lindor building off of their big hits from Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of guys that we’ve seen have been able to do it, and it just hasn't happened yet,” manager Buck Showalter said. “We’ve got over 100 games left. I still have a lot of confidence that these guys will do some things that their history tells you they will do.”