Nolan McLean got the ball for the Mets looking to snap a brutal stretch, and Martín Pérez started for Atlanta trying to build on a strong recent run before his day ended early and violently.
Pérez never made it out of the 5th. A 92-mph liner off Juan Soto's bat caught him in the left arm, and Atlanta's night unraveled from there — the bullpen absorbing extra innings it didn't plan on burning, with Ha-Seong Kim and Ronald Acuña Jr. already unavailable behind him.
Atlanta still finished with the better team on paper, but a jittery pitching staff and a suddenly leaky defense turned a laugher into a nail-biter, the kind of game that makes the pregame numbers look almost irrelevant by the final out.
New York piled up a 4-run 2nd and, more remarkably, a 5-run 9th to push the score to 10-3 — a lead that looked like a laugher against a Mets team that had been outscored 14-3 by these same Braves just a day earlier.
Then Atlanta made it interesting. Six runs in the bottom of the 9th, aided by 3 Mets errors, pulled the Braves within one before New York finally shut the door. It's the kind of finish that erases records for a night — a 36-53 club that had dropped 4 of its last 5 outlasting a 52-35 team that had just demolished them 24 hours prior.
- 10-Day-ILMarcus Semien 2B — Semien was diagnosed Monday with a Grade 3 left hip flexor strain and is expected to be out for 4-to-6 weeks, at a minimum, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports.
- 60-Day-ILLuis Robert Jr. CF — Robert (back) will start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports.
- 60-Day-ILClay Holmes SP — Holmes (fibula) has been throwing on flat ground and is expected to progress to mound work next week, Chelsea Janes of SNY.tv reports.
- 60-Day-ILJorge Polanco 1B — Polanco (Achilles) will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports.
- 60-Day-ILDedniel Nunez RP — Nunez (elbow) will begin a rehab assignment with Single-A St. Lucie on Thursday, Michael Mayer of MetsmerizedOnline.com reports.
- 60-Day-ILReed Garrett RP — The Mets placed Garrett (elbow) on the 60-day injured list Tuesday.
- 60-Day-ILJustin Hagenman RP — The Mets placed Hagenman on the 60-day injured list Saturday due to a rib fracture.
- 60-Day-ILTylor Megill SP — The Mets placed Megill (elbow) on the 60-day injured list Thursday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports.
- Day-To-DayMartin Perez SP — Perez was removed from Sunday's start against the Mets after being struck in the left arm by a 92-mph line drive off the bat of Juan Soto during the fifth inning, Lindsay Crosby of BravesToday.com reports.
- 10-Day-ILHa-Seong Kim SS — Atlanta placed Kim on the 10-day injured list Saturday, retroactive to Wednesday, due to right middle finger inflammation.
- 10-Day-ILRonald Acuna Jr. RF — Acuna (hamstring) went through a full pregame workout at Truist Park in Atlanta on Tuesday, Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
- 15-Day-ILRobert Suarez RP — An MRI on Suarez's right elbow came back negative Friday, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports.
- suspensionJurickson Profar LF — Profar will miss the full 2026 season after the appeal of his 162-game PED suspension was denied Thursday, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.
- 60-Day-ILAJ Smith-Shawver SP — Smith-Shawver (elbow) pitched three innings Tuesday during a rehab start with Single-A Augusta, allowing one run on three hits while striking out four batters, Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
- 60-Day-ILSpencer Schwellenbach SP — Schwellenbach (elbow) will likely report to Atlanta's spring training facility in early July and could be a candidate to rejoin the major-league rotation by late August or early September, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports.
- 60-Day-ILSpencer Strider SP — Atlanta transferred Strider (elbow) to the 60-day injured list Wednesday.
The Pérez injury is the lingering storyline here. Atlanta's rotation was already without Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach for the season, and losing a steady arm like Pérez — even for a day-to-day stint — tightens the margin for a team that just watched its bullpen get torched in a game it should have controlled.