Major League Baseball

Three Cuts: Braves swept, mathematically eliminated from postseason

Published Sep. 22, 2014 12:55 a.m. ET

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ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves dropped Sunday's game to the New York Mets, 10-2, and only belted out four hits along the way. The loss completed the three-game sweep at the hands of the Mets, and gave New York the season series win as the Braves only won nine of 19 games against the divisonal foe.

In addition to the pain of losing and the sweep, Sunday's loss by the Braves, combined with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Milwaukee Brewers, eliminated Atlanta from postseason contention. With seven games left to play in the regular season, there is no way for the Braves to gain enough ground.

Here are three observations from a rather rough day in Braves country:

At approximately 3:04 p.m. on Sunday, the Pirates beat the Brewers giving the Braves one option for a small glimmer of postseason hope.

Atlanta was down by four runs at the end of seventh inning when the Pirates win became official. The only way for the Braves to stave off mathematical elimination was to overcome a four-run deficit, and beat the Mets. Had that happened, the Braves would have had to win each of their remaining seven games, and the Pirates would have had to lose all theirs. And that scenario doesn't even factor in the Brewers, who have a better record than the Braves.

There's no need for advanced math or scoreboard watching over the coming week. Atlanta didn't score in the final two innings, and New York piled on four more runs.

At 76-79, the best record Atlanta can finish with is 83-79. The worst either Pittsburgh or the San Francisco Giants can do is finish with an 84-78 record.

Since 2006, the Braves have won the National League East just once, and only qualified for the postseason in three of those nine seasons. That sporadic success is in stark contrast to the previous 14 seasons where Atlanta won the division a record 14 consecutive times, and made five trips to the World Series, winning one.

The once regular postseason invitation from 1991 to 2005, is no longer a given in Atlanta.

Everyone's had that dream where they're sitting in a classroom taking a test, and every question is too difficult to answer.

The Braves experienced that feeling on Sunday. deGrom was the subject. His pitches were the questions. And rarely was the correct answer offered by a Braves hitter early in the game.

The first three Atlanta hitters of the game were sat down by deGrom with 11 pitches. In fact, the Braves didn't put a runner on base until the fifth inning, and were struck out eight times in the first 12 trips to the plate, including the first three, the first five of six, and the first seven of nine.

While deGrom was pitching fantastically in the beginning, striking out seven of the first nine batters paled in comparison to his previous start when deGrom fanned the first eight Miami Marlins he faced, a feat that tied a record set in 1986 by Jim Deshaies.

deGrom struck out 10 batters in six innings, and only allowed three hits--two of which came in the fifth inning when Justin Upton lead off with a single to left and Chris Johnson went the other way with the single into right field.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez didn't want to cast an NL Rookie of the Year vote toward deGrom, but he did have plenty of praise for the 26 year old.

"He pitched real well," Gonzalez said after the game. "He's got an above- average fastball, and his secondary pitches are pretty good. We had a chance; we got to him in the fifth inning in a 4-0 game and we scored a couple of runs. If we get a couple of more runs, it might be a different ballgame."

September is typically a time for rookies to come up and get some valuable big-league experience. Or, if a rookie has been with the team for a while, and he's lucky enough to play on a team with a shot at the postseason, a race-to- the-finish type game is a great time to expose youngsters to the rigors of Major League Baseball.

Atlanta had two rookies in the starting lineup in both of those circumstances.

The almost-26-year-old Phil Gosselin has been with the Braves since late July, and he was hitting .295 prior to Sunday's start.

Christian Bethancourt, who just turned 23, was up earlier in the season when Evan Gattis was injured, but didn't re-join the big club until Sept. 3. Bethancourt spent most of his season with Triple-A Gwinnett to build his skills with the bat, as his defensive prowess has already been established.

Since his call up, and prior to Sunday's game, Bethancourt was hitting .256 (10 for 39) and had driven in six runs in 11 games.

While both Gosselin and Bethancourt are enjoying success, neither had a good game on Sunday. To put it more accurately, they had miserable days.

Gosselin came to bat four times, and struck out each time. He only saw 14 pitches all day (twice striking out on three, and twice on four pitches), and his fifth-inning fanning came at a terrible time. The Braves had already scored two runs, and had the bases loaded while trailing the Mets by two runs.

Gosselin's whiff ended that rally.

Atlanta's second baseman had only struck out 19 times in his previous 105 at-bats, so it's possible Gosselin just suffered from a bad day at the plate. It's also a possibility that pitchers may be figuring out the rookie.

In 12 at-bats against the Mets over the last three days, Gosselin is 1 for 12 (.083) with seven strikeouts.

Bethancourt had his first truly horrible day in the bigs.

While it wasn't bad enough that Bethancourt went 0 for 4 at the plate on Sunday, he also had trouble fielding a bunt laid down by deGrom in the sixth inning, and made an error on the exchange. Bethancourt also was charged with a passed ball in the fourth inning that allowed a run to score, and another base runner to advance to third, and score later on a sacrifice fly.

While the error was likely a random occurrence, and the passed ball looked like it might have been a miscommunication with the pitcher (Bethancourt didn't seem to get the breaking pitch he was expecting), Bethancourt's bat has gone cold of late.

Over his last seven games, Bethancourt is 4 for 27 (.148) and has struck out seven times.

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