Mets split doubleheader with Braves after Francisco Alvarez carries team with 2 RBI in nightcap

Pitching help is on the way for the Mets, but it can’t come soon enough.

The Mets split a pair of games with the Atlanta Braves on Monday at Citi Field, losing the series 2-1. In the first game, Denyi Reyes was shaky as the opener but in the second, Tylor Megill had a solid outing and Francisco Alvarez had a fantastic game behind the plate and at the plate.

Calling up Reyes to make a start was always a gamble. There have always been questions about whether or not his stuff could play at the big league level and the Mets thought he possessed the traits to be able to start.

Reyes (0-1) was used as an opener Monday in the first game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves and he put the Mets in a hole right away. The Mets were nearly able to overcome it, coming within one run of tying the game in the sixth inning and again with one in the ninth. But Sean Murphy hit his second home run of the game in the seventh inning off right-hander Jeff Brigham to doom the Mets in a 9-8 loss. The Mets took the second game 5-3.

“We were proud,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Guys kept battling back.”

The Mets got home runs from Pete Alonso, Brett Baty and Eduardo Escobar. They hit Spencer Strider (4-0) hard, tagging one of the NL East’s premier pitchers for four earned runs on five hits and limiting him to five innings.

“They got after it, they competed and we had a chance,” Showalter said. “We just couldn’t keep it in the ballpark.”

Weather postponements left the Mets’ bullpen in a good spot and they were able to lean on guys like Tommy Hunter and Stephen Nogosek, who was activated from the injured list before the game, to pitch the Mets back into the game after Reyes gave up five earned runs over the first and second innings. Reyes recorded only three outs but he was removed in the second after giving up a two-run homer to former Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar.

“I was trying to execute my pitch there and it didn’t happen,” Reyes said through a translator.

Reyes, who was making on the second start of his career, was then replaced by right-hander John Curtiss, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse over the weekend to take the place of left-hander David Peterson on the roster. Curtiss then gave up a home run to Ronald Acuña Jr., before retiring the rest of the side.

Nogosek went 2 2/3 innings in relief, limiting the Braves to only a single hit. Hunter went two innings, striking out the side in the eighth.

“Tommy did a really good job there, especially in that part of the order,” Showalter said. “We got a short start from Reyes. We were hoping to get three out of him.”

Atlanta spotted Strider a 3-0 lead after Murphy’s first home run, which was also of the three-run variety, in the first inning. The Mets pushed one across the plate in the bottom of the frame but three more runs in the second put them down 6-1.

Alonso hit a three-run shot in the third off Strider in the third to cut the lead to 6-4. It was his 11th of the season and it ties him with Max Muncy for the league lead.

Baty hit his second home run of the season in the sixth off left-hander Dylan Lee to make it 6-5.

Then came Murphy’s second homer. The Mets scored two more in the bottom of the seventh and came within striking distance again in the bottom of the ninth when Eduardo Escobar pinch-hit a home run off left-hander A.J. Minter. The Mets couldn’t complete the comeback and Minter converted the save (six).

“Our guys kept plugging back there and we had the tying run at the plate,” Showalter said. “We had our chances and we cashed in on a lot of them.”

Megill went 5 ⅔ innings in the second game, exiting after giving up three runs in the sixth. But Alvarez picked him up in the bottom of the inning, doubling off the left field wall to score two and put the Mets back up 4-3. Jeff McNeil homered off Joe Jimenez in the eighth to give the Mets an insurance run.

Megill allowed three earned runs on four hits, walked three and struck out four. Drew Smith (2-1) picked up the win in relief and David Robertson went two innings to convert his sixth save.

McNeil went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored. Alvarez went 2-for-4 with two RBI and drew high praise for his work with the pitchers.

“He calls a great game,” Megill said. “If there’s a pitch that he calls that I don’t specifically want to throw, I’ll shake it off and call what I want to throw. For the most part, it’s been smooth sailing the whole way through.”