Brett Baty makes immediate impact for New York Mets, slugs home run on first major league swing

ATLANTA – When Brett Baty first stepped onto the field in the big leagues, he just looked around.

“I wanted to soak it all up,” he said.

Then came a moment that he will remember for the rest of his life.

Baty hit a homer in his first major league at-bat, and the New York Mets held off the Braves 9-7 Wednesday night to end Atlanta’s eight-game winning streak.

After being outplayed 18-1 in the first two games of the series, the NL East-leading Mets jumped to a 6-1 lead, barely managing to push their lead over the Braves back to 4 1/2 games.

And Baty was partly to thank.

The 12th pick overall in the 2019 draft, he came on board with a runner for the first time in the second inning and the Mets were already leading 2-0 after consecutive homers on the first off by Jake Odorizzi. After taking a ball, Baty hit with a hanging curve on his very first swing in a New York uniform.

“I was just looking for a place to ride,” said Baty. “He left one over the plate.”

According to research from ESPN Stats & Information, Baty is the fifth player to hit a home run on his first appearance on the turntable in Mets history and the first since Mike Jacobs in 2005.

Baty, who is from Round Rock, Texas, said before the game that his mother, father, sister and several other relatives flew to Atlanta for his big league debut. They broke out in their seats with applause as they watched the ball fly out of Truist Park.

“Looking up (to the stands) and seeing my family up there celebrating with my teammates in the dugout is just pure joy,” said Baty.

A worker retrieved the ball, which will become a treasured memento for Baty, the 37th best prospect in baseball from ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, who was called up to the big leagues just a week after his promotion to Triple-A Syracuse.

“Surely that will be framed and put on a shelf somewhere,” he said. “Hopefully there will be more.”

Baty’s big night came the same day the Mets put Eduardo Escobar on the injured list with a left oblique injury.

In other injury developments, pitcher Taijuan Walker underwent an MRI after only getting through two innings at his start Tuesday due to back spasms. Walker may not be able to make his next scheduled start Sunday in Philadelphia, but he doesn’t appear to be sidelined for an extended period, according to manager Buck Showalter.

“All in all, pretty good news,” Showalter said of Walker. “His start on Sunday is in jeopardy but we still hope he can make it before then. We have other thoughts about who might fill in if Walker can’t go.

The Mets named stand-in RJ Alvarez for the call after he gave up three runs in 2 1/3 innings in a 5-0 loss to the Braves on Tuesday – his first big league appearance since 2015. Lefty Sam Clay became convene Syracuse.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.