The opening game of Wednesday’s doubleheader at the New York Mets was a bit of a good news, bad news situation for the Atlanta Braves.
The good news was that AJ Smith-Shawver’s 2026 debut largely went well and appeared likely to give the Braves rotation an immediate upgrade.
The bad news is the offense didn’t do much in terms of run support for the 23-year-old.
Matt Olson provided the Braves’ only runs with a sixth-inning homer in the 3-2 afternoon loss at Citi Field, snapping Atlanta’s streak of three
straight series wins coming out of the All-Star break.
With the game tied at 2 in the seventh, Carson Benge’s two-out RBI double proved to be the difference after Dylan Dodd (2-1) issued consecutive one-out walks to A.J. Ewing and Francisco Lindor.
The Braves were not lacking in chances for more runs, going down in order just twice in nine innings. However, they finished 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranded five runners and were largely unable to find much success against Mets starter Sean Manaea and the bullpen behind him.
Manaea allowed five hits and two runs over six innings and Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams each followed with scoreless innings to stifle the Braves, who have scored three or fewer runs in four straight games after scoring six-plus in six of the first eight coming out of the break.
Atlanta had the tying run at second with two outs in the ninth after Mauricio Dubón delivered a two-out single and pinch runner Jorge Mateo swiped second. But an Austin Riley strikeout squandered one final scoring chance and clinched the defeat.
Smith-Shawver didn’t factor into the decision or make it through five innings in his season debut, the latter of which isn’t especially surprising considering he was on a pitch count of sorts. But he was effective for much of his debut, navigating traffic in each of his first four innings to post four scoreless frames.
Things came apart a bit in the fifth, though, as he allowed the first three batters to reach on a walk, a single and a double to plate the game’s first run. A sacrifice fly by the next batter ended his outing after 4 1/3 innings over which he allowed two runs on four hits, struck out four and walked two.
Still, he immediately looked to be an upgrade to the rotation, sitting 97 and touching 98 mph with his fastball and balancing that with effective offspeed offerings. Especially as he continues to rebuild his stamina, he has the look of being a better option than a number of starters the Braves have been forced to rely on this season.
After a glacial start at the plate, Atlanta equalized in the very next inning when Drake Baldwin led off with a double and Olson extended his team lead with his 28th homer — seventh-most in the majors — to tie the game.
Other than that, though, the Braves couldn’t break through.
They’ll have another chance to do that Wednesday night in the Mets finale before heading home to kick off a four-game set against the Washington Nationals on Thursday.
