Tylor Megill, Mets routed by MLB-best Braves in series-opening loss – The Denver Post

Everything was going well for Tylor Megill until it wasn’t.

The Mets were routed by the Atlanta Braves 7-0 in the first game of a three-game series Friday night at Citi Field. Megill, the right-hander who has confounded the Mets with his struggles this season, was responsible for six of those runs (five earned) in his sixth loss of the season (6-6).

However, the loss can’t fully be blamed on Megill. There were defensive miscues behind the big righty and there were empty at-bats against Charlie Morton and the NL-best Braves.

The Mets were encouraged by what they saw from Megill despite the end result.

“He’s doing some things he wasn’t doing before and it should bode well for him in the future,” said manager Buck Showalter. “It’s been encouraging for us to have a pitcher with experience that’s young and controllable and all of those things, but it’s more about Tylor. They’ve done a good job with him down there. I know it may not look like it just by the box score tonight, but it’s a better look than before he left.”

Megill cruised through the first three innings, looking more like the pitcher that won his first three decisions of the season and less like the one that was demoted to Triple-A in June. But then he loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth and Brandon Nimmo misplayed a fly ball from Eddie Rosario in center field. Rosario’s single cleared the bases. Megill then gave up a single, an RBI double and another single before the first out — an outfield assist by Jeff McNeil — was recorded in the fifth. A sacrifice fly by Austin Riley scored the fifth run.

Megill gave up another run in the sixth before he was replaced by right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis, who went 3 2/3 innings, allowing the Mets to save the bullpen for the rest of the series. Yacabonis allowed a run of his own in the seven when Riley homered in the seventh, but that was all he would give up.

“I felt good. I felt like I did a really good job attacking hitters in the strike zone,” Megill said. “A couple hung sliders that got hit and a misplaced fastball to Riley. Overall, I just think I was attacking the strike zone with all my pitches and just filling up the strike zone, getting back to where I was last year with that.”

Yacabonis held the Braves to only one run in an outing manager said he was “really proud” of. The run was a solo shot by Riley.

It was the third baseman’s 27th homer of the season. The Mets only have one player who has hit more than that (Pete Alonso, 35). They only have two others who have hit more than 20. The Mets had expected to battle the Braves (73-41) for the division title, but they’ve beaten Atlanta only once this season and lost six times so far this season. They’ll face them six more times.

Megill went 5 1/3 innings, allowing five earned runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out three.

“Getting ahead of hitters, attacking hitters,” Megill said. “My pitch count was low going into the sixth. Obviously, the results were different but some things you can’t control.”

Morton (11-10) gave the Mets chances in the form of seven walks. He walked Brandon Nimmo twice, Jonathan Arauz twice, Pete Alonso three times and issued free passes to McNeil and Rafael Ortega. Still, the Mets couldn’t push anything across the plate. The 39-year-old veteran right-hander shut the Mets out over five innings, giving up just three hits.

A new season-high was set with 14 runners left on base. It was the 12th time this season the Mets failed to score a run.

“Nine walks and seven hits and we don’t score a run,” Showalter said. “We obviously had people out there.”

The Mets were without Francisco Lindor, who was a late scratch with tightness on his right side. He was replaced by Arauz, who went 0-for-2 with two walks. Lindor is considered day-to-day.

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