Best Mets strength outmatched by Braves home run prowess

If the New York Mets were going to win the 2022 World Series, they were going to need to do it with Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer pitching as sharp as possible. That wasn’t the case over the last two days. The co-aces were less stellar in the most important starts of the year against the Atlanta Braves.

A major reason for it: the Braves hit for power and the Mets don’t. deGrom gave up three home runs to Atlanta. Scherzer allowed another two.

All the while, the Mets bats were held to only two runs on Friday and another two on Saturday. It’s hard to win by scoring so few runs. We can point our fingers at deGrom and Scherzer. The bigger problem was how one team’s strength outperformed the other twice in a row.

Best weapon the Mets have was outmatched by the way the Braves hit home runs

Good pitching is supposed to beat good hitting. Not these last two days. Not nearly as much as the adage suggests either.

The Mets leaned heavily on the duo of deGrom and Scherzer to carry them far in 2022. In a rather amazing turn, both came up short in their most recent outings.

deGrom was far better but not as elite as fans had hoped. Scherzer, in even rarer form, looked like much less of a threat versus the Braves on Saturday. He didn’t even through the sixth inning.

The Mets can get by with mediocre performances from these two if they were able to come close to replicating what the Braves have done often in 2022. The National League leaders in home runs, it was the power at the plate that outperformed the power on the mound in these first two games. It’s a scary scenario. Without deGrom and Scherzer being flawless, this Mets team looks capable of losing to anyone they face in the postseason.

A lack of attention to the ability to score runs is to blame. The Mets made questionable trade deadline decisions and delayed the promotions of Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez to the point where neither had much time to figure things out at the major league level.

Now, in these final days of the regular season with the whole division on the line, the Mets are crawling toward the finish line.