Mets have golden opportunity to exorcise demons in Atlanta

ATLANTA — This was not a series lacking in storylines. There was the meeting of the Acuñas, Luisangel (active) and Ronald Jr.(inactive with injury).

The two exchanged jerseys in the media room at Truist Park.And in an, um, interesting 10 minutes or so, Ronald hung out near the Mets dugout gabbing with his brother, friends, family and Mets — and ultimately the siblings took a picture … with Mets owner Alex Cohen. There was Francisco Lindor still not giving a name to his injury, but revealing he underwent a bone scan Monday that showed no structural problems.

He increased his workload prior to the series opener Tuesday and seemed to be running better, while still putting on shoes more gingerly than normal.He continued to say he was trending in the right direction and was hoping to be available, perhaps in this series.

But he did not start for the eighth straight game. And hovering over it all — literally — was Tropical Storm Helene.Gov.

Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in Georgia, bracing for a storm which was threatening to hit land as a Category 3 hurricane.This dominated pre-series discussion with talking points including wonder why a game (or two) was not played on Monday’s mutual day off, why two games weren’t being played Tuesday, why the series was not moved to a more climate-friendly neutral site, concern if any game could be played Wednesday and if an ark might be needed to get out of town Thursday. Also, concerns if game(s) don’t get played over the next few days will the teams have to reconvene Monday — a day after the regular season ends and a day before the wild-card round begins — to complete the schedule and determine which teams are actually in the postseason. Which, of course, circles back to the reason why the Acuñas were together and Lindor was trying to will his way back onto a field and the team and league were trying to find windows to play. These games were loaded with implications for the 2024 season.

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