Yoenis Cespedes reached down and golfed a knuckleball on a bounce against the right-center field wall, then while running at third-quarters speed started hopping toward second. He bent over when he reached the base and put hands on both knees. In a series of setbacks for the New York Mets on Thursday, they scratched Noah Syndergaard because of biceps and shoulder discomfort, lost their top slugger to a strained hamstring that will send him to the disabled list, then watched substitute starter Matt Harvey get whacked. Their 7-5 defeat to Atlanta was their sixth straight loss and 10th in 11 games, dropping them into last in the NL East at 8-13, 7 1/2 games behind division-leading Washington. With the Mets on their longest skid since June 2015, manager Terry Collins felt compelled to give his first postgame speech to the team this year. Read more http://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=370427121
