Mets barely avoid getting no-hit as Braves, Max Fried dominate listless lineup

The Mets, who have struggled to hold opposing base runners all year, allowed a truly embarrassing steal Saturday: The Braves stole what was supposed to be Christian Scott Day and turned it into a nearly historic afternoon for Max Fried & Co. 

Fried and two Atlanta relievers far outshined the home debut of the promising rookie and recorded 26 outs before J.D. Martinez spoiled their bid at history.

Martinez’s two-out home run in the ninth provided the Mets with a hit, a run and a sidestep of humiliation.

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It did not allow the Mets a win, though, falling 4-1 to the Braves in front of 38,919 whose silence eventually turned into boos at Citi Field.

As Fried (seven innings), Joe Jimenez (the eighth inning) and Raisel Iglesias (the ninth) tried to cobble together the 15th no-hitter in franchise history, the Mets were pretending they did not know the stakes.

“We don’t talk about that. We let you [media] talk about that,” Martinez said. “We just focus on the game.”

Martinez’s blast to right field off Iglesias — his first homer as a Met — avoided the Mets being no-hit for the ninth time in their history.

They have tallied at least one hit in every game since Oct. 3, 2015, when then-National Max Scherzer did the honors, a streak that somehow lives on.

Still, the Mets (18-20) have dropped the first two games of an intriguing, seven-game stretch against the class of the NL East that might be revealing that Carlos Mendoza’s group is indeed playing for a wild card and not the division.

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The Braves have played as if they are in a different stratosphere. The Mets have scored three runs on six hits in 18 innings against Atlanta pitching the past two days.

Fried pitched seven dazzling innings in which he walked three, struck out five and was taken out because manager Brian Snitker valued his 109 pitches more than his zero hits allowed.

“You don’t want to get no-hit,” said Brandon Nimmo, who watched the late innings from afar after being pulled with right intercostal irritation. “It’s something that every team is trying to avoid every single game. But the thing was, I felt like we had good at-bats throughout the game.

“There were some balls that were pretty unlucky. J.D. and Pete come to mind.”

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Pete Alonso’s 405-foot drive into deep center in the second inning would have been a home run in six major league parks, according to Statcast — but not at Citi Field, where it went down as a very long out.

In the seventh, Martinez drilled a Fried four-seamer to deep center, but the speedy Michael Harris II made a nice running grab before smacking into the wall.

After a game that featured Scott making his first start in Queens, much of the talk was about the opposing starter.

“He just mixed very well,” Martinez said of Fried. “He’s tough because you don’t know which way his ball’s going to go — if it’s going to come in, if it’s going to go away, if it’s going to go down, if it’s going to go up. He’s a really good pitcher.”

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The Mets only got to Iglesias, who allowed two, two-out hits — after Martinez’s homer, Jeff McNeil walked and Harrison Bader reached on an infield single — but Brett Baty flew out to end it.

Overshadowed was the home debut of Scott, who pitched well if not dominantly.

In his second major league start, the 24-year-old allowed three runs on six hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in six-plus innings.

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The righty cruised through two innings before stumbling in the third, when Orlando Arcia smoked a two-run home run that hooked just fair down the left-field line for the only runs Atlanta would need.

Scott bemoaned the two pitches previous to the four-seamer that was launched over the wall.

“Threw a 2-0 fastball to Arcia in, right where I wanted it, but good hitters are going to do that in hitters counts,” said Scott, who is the first Mets pitcher since Steven Matz to record back-to-back quality starts to begin his MLB career.

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He gave up another run in the fourth, when Harris cracked an RBI single, but otherwise Scott held his own against one of the best offenses in baseball.

Scott was a positive.

The mini rally the Mets stacked together after 26 hitless outs was a positive.

But no, it was not a happy clubhouse after flirting with and ultimately avoiding infamy.

“At the end of the day,” Mendoza said, “we lost the game.”