Maine misses mark in first start for Mets
Righty allows four runs in four innings; Pagan drives in a pair.
ATLANTA — As much as the Mets want to put 2007 behind, they can not do so — not readily, not yet, not if their bullpen performs as it did on Saturday in a rather ugly loss to the Braves. Losing to the Braves wasn’t particularly reminiscent of what the Mets endured late last season. But parallels were easily drawn between the method of losing then and how they lost, 11-5, on Saturday.
It wasn’t merely the pinch-hit grand slam Kelly Johnson hit against Jorge Sosa — Sosa playing the role of discarded Guillermo Mota — in the seventh inning, or the two runs the Braves scored in the eighth against Nelson Figueroa, though those runs seemed to be pieces of unwanted nostalgia. But the bullpen let down the Mets even before Sosa was summoned. The Braves, having scored four times against losing pitcher John Maine, added a run to their lead in the sixth inning against Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis. So the Mets trailed 5-3 before the slam.
The Mets scored twice against the Braves’ already suspect bullpen in the eighth inning, but they couldn’t offset the damage. Maine, arguably the best pitcher in Florida last month, lasted merely four innings in his 2008 debut, allowing runs in three of them. He surrendered eight hits, three walks and four runs. He needed 96 pitches to achieve 12 outs, an unhealthy ratio.
The Mets scored once in the second inning and twice in the fifth, when the reversal of an incorrect call on a line drive struck by Jose Reyes changed an inning-ending double play into a run-scoring single. But even that assist was insufficient.
Smith retired the Braves in order in the fifth, But a leadoff single by Ruben Gotay, waived by the Mets in the final days of Spring Training, and an RBI single by Mark Kotsay against Schoeneweis doubled the Mets’ deficit.
The Mets managed six hits in six innings against Tim Hudson (1-0), the winning pitcher. David Wright was hitless in four at-bats; his hitting streak, carried over from last season, ended at 20 games.
Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.