This wasn't your regular sweep. At first glance, the Atlanta Braves' trouncing of the New York Mets seems like a standard sweep. The final score would indicate that Atlanta handled New York with relative ease. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth. In their three losses, the Mets actually held a sizable lead for most of the game. However, in the most inopportune of times, the team would give up run after run to let Atlanta take control of the game.

Despite the sweep, though, Mets manager Buck Showalter is still keeping his head high. After the tragic sweep to the Braves, Showalter said that he was proud of the team, and that things simply didn't go their way, per Talkin' Baseball.

Well, the sentiment is nice. That's not what Mets fans want to hear, though, not after what they just saw. New York saw multiple-run leads crumble in the blink of an eye against the Braves. Yes, the Braves' hitting staff is a fire hazard, ready to ignite at a moment's notice. That does not excuse the shoddy effort the team had in closing out the game.

Despite investing a lot into their current roster, the Mets sit three games below .500 this season. There's still more than half of the season left, and there's plenty of time to course correct. However, with every loss they incur, their margin of error gets smaller and smaller. This team is a far cry from the dominant squad that won 100+ games last season. Can the Mets merge their supposedly elite pitching and hitting consistently for the rest of the year?