This was one of those funhouse mirror games: it was easy to see the Black Mirror version of the game where the alternate universe Braves lost, but in this one, we won!

Good Spencer / Bad Spencer

Spencer Strider’s return from injury has maybe been a bit like Sandy Alcantara’s. The velocity and stuff are starting to look a bit more Spencerish, but he hasn’t had his best command. Tonight, he gutted through five innings – eight strikeouts on the one hand, four walks and three runs on the other, most of it in a single frame.

The first three innings were pretty low-stress, but things went a bit off the rails during the 33-pitch fourth inning, as he gave up three walks and two singles. To his credit, though, he got the third out in that inning, and went 1-2-3 in the fifth, ending his evening with a 96-mph fastball on the black to catch Juan Soto looking. By then he had 91 pitches, and that was quite enough.

The Opposite Number

Frankie Montas, coming back from injury, held the Braves scoreless through five. This is a guy who’s had an ERA of 5.12 in his previous 191 2/3 innings, since the ill-fated trade when Oakland sent him to the Yankees for an impressive prospect haul and he pitched poorly and got hurt almost immediately. Not the guy you want to see throwing up zeroes.

But 80 pitches in five innings was as far as the Mets trusted to let him go, in his first start of the season, and they went to their pen. Fortunately for us, they brought in Huascar Brazoban, who’s turning into a human rally cap for us.

A week ago, he presided over our streak-breaking extra innings walkoff victory, handing us an intentional walk, wild pitch, less-intentional walk, and sacrifice fly. Tonight, as Brazoban strode to the bump at the top of the sixth, he was even more generous.

The Turning Point

First, he walked Marcell on four pitches, one of three on the night. And then Austin Riley had one of his best at-bats in quite a while, drawing a walk on the eighth pitch of his at-bat, inspiring Drake Baldwin to work an eight-pitch walk of his own.

Having loaded the bases on free passes, Brazoban then gave up a sac fly to Ozzie Albies, and out came each manager: Carlos Mendoza brought on his lefty Jose Castillo, and Brian Snitker pinch-hit Eli White for Alex Verdugo.

Our’n worked out better than their’n. White scorched a ball to the hot corner that Brett Baty couldn’t handle, as a run scored on the infield single. Michael Harris then re-loaded the bases the hard way, later coming out of the game after getting plunked on the arm.

At this point the Mets still had a one-run lead. Six batters and 27 pitches into the inning, the bases were loaded with one out and two runs were in despite nothing having left the infield. Castillo has only faced two hitters, and so he had to stay in. And Nick Allen made them pay, ripping a single to the opposite field to tie the game.

Finally, the Mets were able to go back to their pen, and they brought in righty Reed Garrett. Ronald Acuña had an uncharacteristically poor at-bat, swinging at some bad balls and striking out to leave runners on. But Matt Olson picked him up, hitting a line drive up the middle to plate two more men and give the Braves a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

More Excitement

Two innings later, the Braves got some Raisel Room when Acuña walked, Olson doubled him in, and Riley doubled him in. It was a good thing, too, as our bullpen adventure nearly turned tragic. Since it wasn’t a save situation, De Los Santos got the first bite at the apple, but a double and a single later, it was a save situation, and Raisel trotted in, following a strikeout with an RBI double. All of a sudden, there were men on second on third and the tying run strode to the plate in the Mets’ team MVP, Francisco Lindor.

And then he grounded out to Ozzie. Ballgame, shake hands, Bob’s your uncle.

The Braves scored seven runs, but they left ten men on base as they recorded eight hits and drew nine (!) walks. The Braves are 5-0 against the Mets and 32-41 against all the other teams; shame we can’t play them every night. We’ve got two more games in this series, and then we’ll have to bid them farewell until we wrap up the season series with another trip to Citi in mid-August. Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow.

Tomorrow night, Didier Fuentes will make his second start, as the Metropolitans counter with Clay Holmes. Didier is getting an extended look. I’d love to see him make the most of this opportunity.