Aug 14, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies (1) follows through on an RBI single against the New York Mets during the sixth inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
QUEENS, NY — Even on a night in which a Mets starter provided a rare semblance of length, the pitching faltered to continue New York’s freefall.
After Kodai Senga allowed two runs in 5.2 innings of work, reliever Ryan Helsley squandered a 3-2 lead in the eighth, allowing two runs to score on back-to-back one-out RBI doubles from Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies, lifting the Atlanta Braves to a 4-3 victory in Thursday night’s rubber game at Citi Field.
“For everybody else to do the job and you not to do yours, it sucks,” Helsley said. “You never want to be the guy and the reason your team loses.”
The Mets (64-57) have now lost 13 of their last 15 games, and missed on a chance to cut their divisional deficit behind the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies to four games after they lost to the Washington Nationals 3-2.
“On a daily basis, there are a lot of guys doing good things and then there’s a couple guys that are not,” Francisco Lindor, who went 3-for-4 with a solo home run, said. “Just dealing with the ups and downs and maneuvering, and sticking together, it’s the most important thing. It’s tough… No matter what happens, we stay together, we fight for each other, we play for each other. This is definitely a test that we’re going through. Big adversity. Everyone here has a sense of urgency trying to win and wanting to win… so it’s tough to deal with the ups and downs at the end of the night.”
Albies accounted for three of the Braves’ four runs, going 3-for-4 with a single, double, and solo home run.
The Mets could only muster three runs against Braves starter Bryce Elder, who entered Thursday with a 6.12 ERA this season. Having allowed 15 earned runs in his previous 15.1 innings of work, the righty went seven innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits with six strikeouts and two walks.
“He’s usually a sinker/slider guy, but he was throwing some four-seamers to our lefties that had some cut to it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “They had a hard time picking the slider up because of the cut. He was using all of his pitches, mixed well, and he got us tonight.”
Senga became the first starting pitcher in eight days to pitch into the sixth inning, providing some length from a rotation that has contributed zero of that as of late.
Allowing two earned runs across 5.2 innings pitched with seven strikeouts and one walk, the 32-year-old right-hander finally had a bounce-back outing after going four and 4.1 innings in his previous two appearances.
“I was able to throw all my pitches how I wanted to manipulate them, and I think each pitch was up to the standard of competing with the hitter,” Senga said. “If I can continue this moving forward, I think I’ll be able to string along some good outings.”
It has still been 54 straight games now without two different Mets starting pitchers completing six innings.
After yielding a solo home run to Albies in the fourth, which canceled out Lindor’s third-inning round-tripper, Senga’s night came to an end in the sixth after allowing a two-out single to Michael Harris II that put runners at the corners. Reliever Tyler Rogers could not get out of the jam, allowing a go-ahead single to Albies to put the Braves up 2-1.
“I think it goes back to the things we could have done better,” Senga said on his hook rather than getting another chance against Albies. “There was that previous at-bat where I threw a fastball to a guy that was waiting for a fastball. He hit it at. Maybe if things were different, I would have had that last hitter, maybe not. I don’t know.”
The Mets found an immediate answer in the bottom of the sixth when Lindor singled, stole second, and advanced to third on catcher Drake Baldwin’s throwing error. Following a Juan Soto walk, Brandon Nimmo brought Lindor in with a sacrifice fly to right.
Soto stole second, which set a new Mets record as the team’s 36th-straight stolen base without being caught, and came in to score on Alonso’s two-out RBI single to give New York a lead that Helsley ultimately could not hold on to.
After getting the first out of the inning, he walked Marcel Ozuna, who was pinch-run for by Eli White. He then yielded two straight doubles — Harris’ scoring White and Albies’ golf shot off a ball well beneath the zone plating him.
I’m leaving too good of pitches. That pitch to Harris was down the middle, a breaking ball; he put a good swing on it. The pitch to Albies was a couple of balls below the zone, and he put a weird swing on it, and it ended up a good result.”
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