Dedniel Núñez spent two seasons establishing himself as an important piece of the Mets bullpen. Getting back to that level after a second Tommy John surgery is proving to be a much tougher assignment. Núñez endured a brutal seventh inning Wednesday night at Truist Park, surrendering three runs as the Braves pulled away for a 6-3 victory and handed the Mets a series defeat.
The right-hander entered with New York trailing 3-2. By the time his outing was finished, Atlanta had opened a four-run advantage. Núñez retired only one batter and was charged with three runs, with consecutive home runs doing most of the damage.
Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Riley went deep back-to-back before Ronald Acuña Jr. hammered a double off the fence. Núñez eventually departed, and Drake Baldwin drove in Atlanta’s third run of the inning with a single against Jefry Yan.
Núñez Still Searching for His Command
For Núñez, it was another difficult outing after he surrendered two earned runs in one inning against the Pirates five days earlier.
“There has been good and bad from this whole process,” Núñez, speaking through an interpreter, said of his return from ligament replacement surgery last July. “I think when you have been out as long as I was, it kind of takes a little longer to find your rhythm, to find that execution. I haven’t been executing my fastballs as well as I wanted to.”
The timing is particularly difficult for a Mets bullpen that looks considerably different following the trade deadline. Luke Weaver, Huascar Brazobán, A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley were all dealt, while Devin Williams is on the injured list with a right shoulder strain.
That has created opportunities for Núñez, but it also means the Mets need innings from a pitcher still trying to rediscover his command after a long rehabilitation.
Interim manager Andy Green pointed specifically to location as the problem.
“Some pitches in the heart of the plate have gotten hit pretty hard,” Green said. “Núñez is going to be fine. The opportunity to get out there and continue to pitch, he’s going to get that. When we look forward to next year, he’s going to be a big part of what we do. He has good stuff. He has paid for middle-middle mistakes right now. He will keep grinding and get it right.”
Núñez offered a similar assessment. He wasn’t struggling to find the strike zone altogether. The problem was what happened when too many pitches caught hittable portions of it.
“It wasn’t that I was all over the place where I wasn’t necessarily executing my pitches,” Núñez said. “I left some pitches in the zone. I was trying to attack, and they did damage.”
Thornton Keeps Mets Within Striking Distance
The seventh-inning collapse spoiled a respectable start from rookie left-hander Zac Thornton, who allowed three earned runs on seven hits and one walk over six innings. Thornton owns a 2.78 ERA and has completed at least six innings in five of his past seven starts.
“It was a gritty performance for him,” Green said. “That was not his best stuff. It wasn’t his best strikes, and he continued to grind.”
Lane Thomas opened the scoring with a two-out solo homer in the second, crushing a high cutter over the left-field fence. Atlanta added another run in the third after Thornton walked Acuña to begin the inning and Baldwin singled. Matt Olson then grounded into a double play that brought Acuña home.
Acuña’s RBI single in the fifth made it 3-0, though the Mets prevented further damage when Francisco Lindor’s cutoff helped catch Acuña attempting to reach second.
New York’s offense, meanwhile, couldn’t reproduce the explosions that had powered several victories during the road trip.
The Mets averaged 8.3 runs in their six wins on the trip, but their losses have looked dramatically different. They were shut out Saturday in Pittsburgh and again Monday in Atlanta. On Wednesday, they didn’t put a runner in scoring position until the ninth inning.
All three Mets runs came on solo home runs.
Luis Torrens hit his third homer of the road trip in the sixth to cut Atlanta’s advantage to 3-1. Luis Robert Jr. followed with another solo shot in the seventh, pulling New York within one.
That was as close as the Mets would get.
Back-to-Back Homers Break It Open
Núñez took over in the bottom half of the seventh, and Atlanta immediately punished his mistakes. Yastrzemski and Riley went deep consecutively, turning a 3-2 game into a 5-2 deficit before the Braves added another run.
Bo Bichette homered in the ninth for the Mets’ final run.
For Núñez, there is little mystery about what needs to change. His stuff remains good enough that Green expects him to factor prominently into the Mets’ plans next season. Right now, however, the margin for error is unforgiving.
Against the Braves on Wednesday, a couple of pitches left in the middle of the plate were enough to turn a one-run game into a decisive defeat.
