ATLANTA — The party was fun while it lasted.
But even on a night when the Mets’ lineup finally broke out with loud hits and reached double digits in scoring, the other half of the equation turned to mush.
Whether it was starting pitcher Justin Verlander getting knocked out after three awful innings or a parade of ineffective relievers, the Mets seemed determined to squander their riches and get swept by the Braves with a 13-10 loss on Thursday at Truist Park.
Mission accomplished.
“We’re not playing well and we know it,” David Robertson said after Ozzie Albies smashed a walk-off, three-run homer in the 10th inning against Tommy Hunter, sending the Mets to their sixth straight loss. “We’re a good team and we’re just not doing what we need to do. We’re getting out of Atlanta. We are going to go to Pittsburgh and hopefully we can turn things around and win a series there. It’s a long season. We’re just in a little slump right now.”
Hunter, the Mets’ seventh pitcher of the night, got two outs in the 10th inning — with a walk to Travis d’Aranud mixed in — before Albies homered over the right-field fence to end it.
Albies had struck out in all three previous career at-bats against Hunter.
It marked the first time in franchise history the Mets lost three straight games which they had led by at least three runs.
“We probably could have come out of here with a sweep ourselves,” Brandon Nimmo said. “Atlanta is a really good team. We’re a good team, and we play each other really well and it always seems to come down to one run here or two runs there. That is the nature of this rivalry right now.”
The Mets trail the Braves by 8 ½ games in the NL East and won’t face their nemeses again until Aug. 11, when the teams are scheduled to meet at Citi Field.
Orlando Arcia’s ninth-inning homer against Robertson tied it 10-10, fully erasing the three-run lead the Mets held in the eighth.
Robertson was asked to get five outs after Drew Smith surrendered a two-run homer to d’Arnaud in the eighth.
“We couldn’t get outs,” manager Buck Showalter said. “We used every arrow we had … but we scored 10 runs — I was proud of that. Guys kept punching back.”
The loss was the Mets’ seventh straight in this ballpark dating to last season, when they squandered the NL East lead after getting swept in three games at Truist Park during the final week.
“I feel like last year we kind of had their number until the end,” Nimmo said.
In a third ugly performance in his last five starts, Verlander lasted only three innings and allowed five runs, four earned, on seven hits and four walks over three innings.
The right-hander was coming off a 117-pitch outing against the Blue Jays but was also pitching on an extra day of rest. Verlander’s ERA jumped to 4.85 — the highest it has been at the conclusion of a game this season.
“I have been working my ass off trying to make it click,” Verlander said. “Every time I think I kind of found it, it goes in the other direction. It’s definitely frustrating for me and everybody for sure.”
Verlander got jumped from the onset, allowing a two-run homer to Austin Riley in the first inning after Ronald Acuña Jr. opened with a double.
The Braves extended their lead to 3-0 later in the inning when Starling Marte nonchalantly tried to field Eddie Rosario’s single to right and the ball scooted under his glove for a two-base error.
The Mets got it all back and more in the second inning.
Three straight singles, including one by Marte for an RBI, got the Mets on the board.
Omar Narvaez singled to load the bases and Nimmo jumped on Spencer Strider’s first pitch and cleared the right-field fence for his first career grand slam.
Brett Baty’s RBI single in the third inning extended the Mets’ lead to 6-3. Jeff McNeil’s leadoff single and Francisco Lindor’s ensuing walk got the Mets started in the inning.
But Verlander walked four batters in the bottom of the third, allowing two runs as the Braves pulled within 6-5. Arcia delivered an RBI single in the inning, after d’Arnaud and Albies had walked.
Michael Harris II and Acuña then walked in succession, forcing in a run, before Verlander struck out Matt Olson to end the inning.
Francisco Alvarez’s two-run homer in the fourth gave the Mets an 8-5 lead. Nimmo walked leading off the inning before Alvarez unloaded for his 10th homer of the season.
Tommy Pham’s RBI double in the fifth upped the Mets’ lead to 9-5. Marte was initially ruled out at the plate on the play, but the Mets challenged and the call was overturned.
The Braves answered with Marcell Ozuna’s homer against Stephen Nogosek in the bottom of the inning. Jeff Brigham got the final two outs in the fifth after Nogosek had allowed a double to Harris.
Alvarez’s second homer of the game, a solo blast in the sixth, extended the Mets’ lead to 10-6. Alvarez moved into a tie with Lindor for second on the team, behind Alonso (22), with 11 homers. Rosario’s RBI single in the sixth got the run back for the Braves.
Strider allowed eight earned runs over four innings and now has a 7.23 ERA in seven career appearances against the Mets. The right-hander owns a 3.08 ERA overall in his career.
