Mets lose to Atlanta on walk-off hit in ninth; Jacob deGrom fans 14 after shaky start

ATLANTA — Luis Rojas has long preached the gospel of resilience. He talks about it when the Mets come from behind, or when yet another player goes down with an injury. He even nodded to it after their blowout loss to Atlanta on Wednesday. He had to be thinking about it on Thursday, when the best player on the team, Jacob deGrom, came out looking remarkably human.

And for a minute there, things did seem to go according to plan — the Mets took deGrom off the hook and they even tied the score in the ninth inning. But resilience can’t account for slow rollers or bad bounces or walk-off hits that bounce off the heel of a pitcher’s glove.

With the score tied, Guillermo Heredia hit a slow roller to the left of the mound, which Seth Lugo dived to reach, but the tumbling Lugo threw the ball away, landing Heredia at first with no outs in the ninth. Two walks – one intentional and one not – loaded the bases, and then Freddie Freeman hit a comebacker that bounced off Lugo’s glove for an infield hit, scoring Heredia as Atlanta took the rubber game, 4-3, at Truist Park.

Luis Guillorme made a play on the ball and potentially had a play at third, but with momentum taking him toward first and no vision of the runner behind him, he went to first, where Freeman was ruled safe.

Before that, Dom Smith, who had already hit a solo homer to draw the Mets to within one in the seventh inning, did it again in the ninth – pummeling Will Smith’s 83-mph slider to right to tie it at 3.

That erased a surprising early deficit. DeGrom, whose consistent dominance is nothing short of automatic, was human, and Atlanta took advantage: triple, single, home run and three runs allowed, all in the first inning.

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DeGrom’s performance was a true rarity: He allowed three earned runs for the first time since September 2020, but nothing after the first inning. He tossed seven innings, allowing five hits with 14 strikeouts and a home run – only the fourth he’s allowed this season. His ERA jumped from 0.69 to 0.95, still the best in baseball by a big margin (Kevin Gausman is the next best at 1.68).

The Mets got their first run courtesy of some heads-up baserunning by Francisco Lindor. Ian Anderson walked him with one out in the first and then Lindor easily stole second without a throw. Michael Conforto drove him in with an RBI single to left.

And though one run is usually enough for deGrom, this time, it didn’t even last three batters. He allowed a leadoff single in the first to Ehire Adrianza, who just barely beat out the tag, and, with one out, a red-hot Ozzie Albies singled to tie it at 1. Then, Austin Riley hit an opposite-field homer off an outside fastball, putting Atlanta up 3-1. The three runs in that inning were more than deGrom has given up in any start all year. It also broke an impressive streak of 37 straight first innings without allowing a hit.

Atlanta picked up where it left off in the second, with the first two batters reaching on a double and a single, but deGrom struck out the next three swinging. That’s all he would need to return to vintage form, as he retired the next 16 batters in a row, 12 of those via the strikeout. At one point, he struck out eight batters in a row.

Laura Albanese is a general assignment sports reporter; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.