Ronald Acuña Jr. homers as Braves sink Mets for 9th loss out of last 10 games

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Jun 23, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — With an extreme heat warning hanging over Citi Field, the Mets’ cold streak continued.

Juan Soto’s sixth-inning home run got the Mets back into Monday night’s series opener against the Atlanta Braves, but his eighth-inning strikeout ended their final rally in a 3-2 loss.

The Mets have now lost nine of their last 10 games, with four of those defeats coming against the rival Braves.

Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Soto drilled a two-out, two-run home run against Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach to cut the Mets’ deficit to one run. The homer was the hot-hotting Soto’s eighth of the month and 17th of the season.

The score remained 3-2 when Soto came up with runners at first and third and two outs in the eighth.

An epic at-bat ensued, with the lefty-swinging Soto seeing eight pitches from Braves left-hander Dylan Lee.

The first six pitches of that battle were sliders, the last of which Soto fouled off. He then fouled off a 3-2 fastball before swinging and missing at another slider.

Lee retired the Mets in the order in the ninth.

That drama followed another stellar outing from the second-year Schwellenbach, who limited the Mets to two runs on four hits in seven innings.

Schwellenbach is now 3-0 with a 2.06 ERA in five career starts against the Mets. He’s thrown exactly seven innings in each of those games.

The Mets returned home Monday after a brutal 1-5 road trip in which they were swept in Atlanta and dropped two of three to the Phillies in Philadelphia.

Monday marked the start of a four-game series against the Braves — right in the heart of New York City’s blistering heat wave.

It was a sun-soaked 90 degrees in Flushing when the Mets took batting practice, and the temperature barely dipped to a still-sweltering 87 by first pitch.

But the excessive heat didn’t bother the Braves early.

They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning, during which Ronald Acuña Jr. drilled a 419-foot solo home run to straight-away center field against Mets starter Paul Blackburn.

Acuña, ever the showman, celebrated all the way around the bases, including making a complete stop before unleashing his signature Eurostep before rounding third.

The theatrics irritated many within a Citi Field crowd of 38,593, who booed Acuña during his home run trot and before his subsequent at-bats.

Acuña’s blast came hours after the Mets optioned his younger brother, Luisangel Acuña, to Triple-A Syracuse to get the 23-year-old infielder more regular playing time.

Blackburn surrendered three runs on six hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.

It could have been worse for the right-hander, who allowed at least one runner to reach scoring position in every inning he pitched.

After erupting for seven homers, 11 runs and 15 hits in Saturday’s win in Philadelphia — which snapped a season-worst seven-game losing streak — the Mets have totaled three runs and 10 hits in back-to-back losses.

The Mets began the season 27-7 at Citi Field, but they have now lost four consecutive home games, dating back to a three-game sweep by the Tampa Bay Rays that kicked off their June swoon.

The Braves (36-42) are 4-0 against the Mets this season and 32-41 against everyone else.

The series continues Tuesday night, when Frankie Montas is set to make his Mets debut. The veteran right-hander missed nearly the first three months of the season after suffering a lat strain during spring training.

Spencer Strider (2-5, 3.89 ERA) is set to start for Atlanta. He held the Mets to one run in six innings in a win last week.

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