Welcome back to the live blog.

I hope you had a nice week…or a few days, if the last thing you read here was Sunday’s post.

The week has been OK for me.

The fact that the Mets came back on Monday night to beat Atlanta kind of set the mood of the week for me.

Even though their comeback fell short on Tuesday, the fact that it meant the Mets were 1-1 vs. Atlanta instead of 0-2 felt like a huge relief.

I bet the team feels some of that too.

And now, after last night’s rainout, we have an afternoon game where the Mets can actually come back home after taking a series in Atlanta.

11:40am: Today’s game is Jose Quintana against Allan Winans. It’s certainly a starting pitching matchup that seems to favor the Mets BUT this is important: Winans faced the Mets in August at Citi Field, and in his second career start he threw 7 scoreless innings in a 21-3 Braves win.

For his part, Jose Quintana hasn’t fared well against Atlanta in his career, and went 0-2 against them with the Mets last year. It does not appear to me that he has ever pitched at Truist Park.

I’ve completed the work I wanted to get done this morning, I have no pickup obligations until 4:30pm, so we’ll be live blogging through the game, which starts at 12:20pm.

I’m going to go get my lunch ready and then I’ll park it in front of the TV for the afternoon. Thanks for joining me.

12:05pm: Here’s a theory no one asked for - is it possible the 0-5 start for the Mets is because they got caught looking ahead to the series in Atlanta? I mean, in theory players should be up for any opponent - but I’ve seen enough baseball to know that doesn’t happen all the time. Seems like Opening Day should have provided enough juice…but maybe Milwaukee and Detroit were afterthoughts because the Mets had their eye on Atlanta so early in the season?

The performance in Atlanta has been a little more inspired than the one at Citi Field, that’s for sure. After falling behind 4-0 in the first game the Mets came back and won, and after being down 6-0 in the second game the Mets got to 6-5 and had the tying run on base in the 9th inning. That’s a good sign, to me, that the Mets don’t seem overmatched and that they can at least stop the bleeding before games get out of hand against Atlanta.

It’s not 21-3, that’s for sure.

For those tracking more than just the baseball - last night I made enchiladas for dinner, so I have a couple of leftover enchiladas and an avocado for lunch. The enchiladas came out good last night…but they might be even better re-heated.

12:10pm: Oh noooooo, there’s a tarp on the field. I didn’t see any warning on social media that there was still rain. I knew the Masters was delayed this morning but I thought Atlanta and Augusta were far enough apart that the weather wasn’t the same. I don’t want a delay! (The golf has started so maybe that’s a good sign for baseball.)

12:15pm: All right, well, there’s a delay. Luckily I have other things to write about so I can help keep you occupied until there’s baseball to write about. We’ll get through this together.

12:25pm: Kind of surprising how little information there is out there about this delay. I saw a radar someone posted and it looks from that like it won’t be a long delay. BUT I WISH SOMEONE OFFICIAL WOULD GIVE US AN IDEA.

12:35pm: At least we have a good opportunity here to rehash the first couple of games of the series. While the comebacks were nice, it would be better to see the Mets jump out to leads. And I would prefer to see the Mets string together hits as everyone gets hot rather than a couple of hits and a big homer, which is how they scored most of their runs in the first two games - Brandon Nimmo (twice), DJ Stewart, and Pete Alonso all providing the big blows.

That said, one of the notable things about the 2022 Mets was how you could never put them away. Many of their 100-plus wins that year came with late comebacks because they didn’t give up. So far this season, they’ve been in games late, they just need to finish the job. And you would have to think that - when it comes to the law of averages after the past year-plus - they’re going to start getting those big hits with runners in scoring position again.

I stayed up late on Monday night to watch the Mets close out the win…I called it a night in the bottom of the 8th on Tuesday. Unless this delay stretches into the evening, I should be OK to make it all the way through the third game.

12:39pm: People have posted pictures from the ballpark in Atlanta. There are blue skies, and ‘barring any weather changes’, first pitch is scheduled for 1pm!

12:45pm: I was watching a little Pirates baseball this week, as I am sometimes wont to do (and admiring their ballpark), and they’re coming to town next week. (Side note: so are the Royals, and what I’m about to say about Pittsburgh can also apply to Kansas City. Dangerous week ahead for the Mets.)

Last year the Pirates were hot and I was rooting for it to continue and it never felt sustainable. This year the Pirates feel more like last year’s Orioles, where the team is coming together and playing well and they seem like a real threat to do well.

12:58pm: I just killed some time doing some of that closet cleaning I told you over the weekend I needed to do…but that also may have been unlucky. Fingers crossed I didn’t just ruin the afternoon.

1:03pm: The game is underway.

Incidentally, Gary and Keith just mentioned Allan Winans’ second start against the Mets last August, which I overlooked because of that 21-3 debacle. The Mets scored 7 runs on 9 hits in 4.1 IP against him 9 days later…so that’s encouraging.

1:20pm: Nice to see the Mets take a 1-0 lead in the first inning with another big two-out hit - this one by Brett Baty, bringing home Starling Marte. I was distracted by Instagram - let me explain why:

In the first live blog I told you how I did not get into the New York City Marathon via lottery. The funny thing about the rejection e-mail they sent is that it clearly featured a guy who ran last year’s marathon, and he was easily identifiable from his bib number and everything and it was a great race pic, but it informed hundreds of thousands of people that they did not get into the marathon. So he quickly became a meme of rejection. (I actually sent him a note on Instagram that I hope he gets a bib out of it from the marathon. You can follow my running Instagram, incidentally, through the link at the bottom of this page. It’s a good time.)

Well, turns out he did get a bib. The marathon posted a reel today where they presented him with a bib to either this year or next year’s marathon. So that’s a nice move by them. I’m only a little bit jealous. (But, big news that I’ll share with you all since you’re among a very small number of the population actually reading this and I would like to give you a reward for that, so I’ll do so with some exclusive information: I decided to raise money through a charity bib for this year’s New York City Marathon and I’m incredibly excited about it. Obviously lots more information to come but congratulations to you on being among the first to know.)

1-2-3 first inning for Jose Quintana. Some loud outs, not unlike Jorge Lopez’s ninth inning on Monday night, but outs are outs. Sometimes you have to let your fielders do it for you. It’s better than walking guys.

1:28pm: Gotta take advantage when Atlanta makes a mistake, and the Mets are doing that. Austin Riley couldn’t make the play on Pete Alonso’s hard ground ball in first inning (it was ruled a base hit) which extended the inning to Baty, and Brandon Nimmo hit the ball over Michael Harris II’s head on what should have been the third out to score Harrison Bader for the second run. And then Starling Marte grounded it to Orlando Arcia at shortstop and it went right through him to allow Nimmo to score! Harris was not given an error, Arcia was, for what it’s worth.

1:29pm: And then a little dribbler in front of the mound by Francisco Lindor ends the inning. Boy it’s hard to watch him at the plate right now. I know he’ll come around but he is struggling.

1:41pm: 4-0 in the top of the third after Francisco Alvarez doubles home Pete Alonso. Alonso has hit the ball hard in his two at-bats, which is a good sign…and Alvarez (I think) went down on three swings and misses his first at-bat, so that was a great second at-bat.

Atlanta has always been a tough place to watch the Mets play. We went down there in 2022 just before things went south for the Mets - we saw Max Scherzer beat Max Fried in July (that’s where that picture at the top of the post is from). Thank goodness the Mets were able to win that one - if they didn’t it would have been absolutely miserable.

1:45pm: Now a Jeff McNeil double scores Alvarez. 5-0. This is how I’ve expected the Mets to hit for 12 games now. Nice to see it. Now we’ll se if they can hold a lead.

1:46pm: DJ Stewart 2-run homer! 7-0. That will make holding the lead a little easier.

1:56pm: It is important that the Mets have scored 7 runs, but it is just as important that so far Atlanta has scored 0. Great job by Jose Quintana with a shutdown inning. (And a nice assist with a great catch by Baty at third to end the inning.) 7-0 through 3.

2:12pm: You can only keep Atlanta without a hit for so long…and Marte couldn’t catch that Matt Olson fly ball off the wall…but, man, Marte has not really looked comfortable tracking fly balls in right field all year. Mostly at Citi Field, but twice today in Atlanta. Maybe it’s a day game thing and it’s just unfortunate sun…but I guess it’s worth watching.

Nice to see Quintana strand Olson on third by getting a dribbler to end the inning.

Here’s the other nice thing about the day game today - BU is playing in the Frozen Four this afternoon/evening so I can keep that on without needing to switch to the Mets. After that, the only thing in the way of Mets baseball is Rangers playoff hockey. Exciting time of year.

2:31pm: It would have been nice to see Quintana go deep into this game and keep Atlanta at 0 runs, but he’s clearly tiring. Hopefully he gets through this fifth inning at just 3 runs…I do not want to see this game get uncomfortably close.

2:32pm: Great defensive play by Lindor to end the inning (after an uncharacteristic not-great play by Alvarez behind the plate allowed the third run to score). 7-3 now through 5.

I mentioned the New York City Marathon before…I should have also mentioned that Monday is the Boston Marathon. I’ll probably pop over to watch a little bit as it comes through Framingham. It’s always a great event to experience even a little bit.

2:49pm: Man, why am I nervous about a game the Mets led 7-0?!

I like that Quintana came out to start the 6th. Wish he would have survived that long Ozuna at-bat. Gotta start getting those starters through 6 now.

2:54pm: Good work by Drew Smith. I’ve said it before on the live blog, I’ll say it again - it sure would be nice to see a couple more Mets runs on the board for insurance here. Top of the lineup coming up - let’s see if they can re-create what they did in the first few innings.

3:03pm: Yesssssssss…the Mets were inches away from getting 0 runs after bases loaded and none out to plating 3 runs. Big hit by McNeil. Wonderful. 10-3 in the seventh.

3:23pm: This is really best-case scenario (IF THE METS HOLD ON, which, please. Come on.) - I would have been happy with a series win in Cincinnati (should have been a sweep) and splitting in Atlanta. But to take two out of three, go 4-2 on the road trip, and come home with hot bats - that feels good. And, important to remember, J.D. Martinez is still in store. Hopefully 0-5 to start the season is the low point.

3:32pm: What a play by Brett Baty to end the 8th! Man. What a start to the year he’s having. Nice work Tyler Jay.

Oh man. They overturned the out call. I didn’t even think it was that close.

3:35pm: Welp. Now all of a sudden the bases are loaded. I wouldn’t say I’m nervous just yet - but it would be nice to see some quick innings by Mets pitchers.

3:37pm: OK. 12-4 going to the 9th. I think we have this one locked up.

3:39pm: hahaha, Luis Guillorme to pitch the 9th against the Mets! I almost don’t want them to hit him. (But he was cheering for Atlanta [obviously] on the bench the other night so he’s no longer one of us. Let’s rough him up.)

3:43pm: Tyrone Taylor pinch hit grand slam! Too bad - I was kind of hoping Francisco Lindor would get a chance to have a slump-busting grand slam against Guillorme. Oh well.

OK, time to wrap things up. A 16-4 final from Atlanta. That was fun.

This Week in Atlanta: 2-1

Overall Record: 5-7

Standings: T-3rd in NL East, 2.5 games back of Atlanta

Up Next: As we’ve documented, a dangerous homestand against Kansas City and Pittsburgh. The Royals are up first. I’ll be there on Sunday to see some 1986 Mets at Dwight Gooden’s number retirement, and hopefully to see the Mets continue this series-winning streak. (And I’ll get an in-person look at Cole Ragans, which is exciting.)

Depending on when I’m back home after Sunday’s game I’ll write about the weekend series.

OK. I have a closet to get back to cleaning.

Let’s Go Mets.