The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
It’s Mets vs. Braves with NL East title on the line
ATLANTA — Two months into the season, it looked like the New York Mets were headed for an NL East runaway.
Not so fast, said the reigning World Series champions.
Sparked by two budding stars, the Atlanta Braves suddenly found their mojo.
Now, they're a mere game behind the Mets heading into the biggest series of the year, a three-game set in the A-T-L on the final weekend of the regular season.
“It's gonna be fun,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That's kind of why you play.”
This isn't quite like the classic pennant races of the pre-wild card era, when a team had to win its league or division to make the postseason. The Mets and Braves have both locked up playoff berths.
But every other division title has been clinched with a week to go, leaving the NL East as a most enticing outlier. And winning the division does come with a major perk.
The NL East champion gets a first-round bye. The team that winds up second will have to host a best-ofthree series, most likely against the San Diego Padres.
“We know how good (the Braves) are and we've got an opportunity just like they do,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “It's great for baseball and it's good for our sport that we all love.”
The free-spending Mets, bolstered by a dynamic rotation and sluggers Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, are headed to the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Their biggest goal has been met.
Still, considering they've been in first place all but a couple of days this season, it would be a major downer if the Mets fail to snap Atlanta's run of four straight NL East titles.
“It's an important series and it's one where everyone is going to play hard,” Mets third baseman Eduardo Escobar said though a translator.
Early on, it didn't look like much a of race.
The Braves were 10 1⁄2 games behind the Mets on May 31, stumbling along with a record of 23-27.
Since then, Atlanta has matched the Los Angeles Dodgers as the hottest team in baseball with a 74-32 mark, getting huge contributions from a pair of rookies.
Michael Harris II was called up from Double-A to join the lineup on May 28, largely with the idea that he would bolster the team's defense in center field.
Turns out, the 21-year-old is much more than a glove man. Harris is hitting .305 with 19 homers, 64 RBIs and 20 stolen bases, making him the favorite for NL rookie of the year and already earning him a long-term deal.
If Harris is the best firstyear player in the league, he's not far ahead of teammate Spencer Strider.
The hard-throwing righthander with the bushy mustache began the year in the bullpen before making his first career start on May 30.
The 23-year-old Strider has been nothing short of dazzling. In 20 starts, he is 10-4 with a 2.77 ERA and 165 strikeouts in 107 ⁄3 innings. available for this 1series. He's
Unfortunately for the Braves, Strider won't be out for the rest of the regular season with an oblique injury, though Atlanta is hopeful of getting him back for the playoffs.
Even without Strider, the pitching matchups are enticing: New York's Jacob deGrom (5-3, 2.93 ERA) against Atlanta's Max Fried (13-7, 2.50) on Friday, followed by Max Scherzer (11-4, 2.13) vs. Kyle Wright (20-5, 3.18) on Saturday, and Chris Bassitt (15-8, 3.2) vs. Charlie Morton (9-6, 4.29 ERA) Sunday night.
The weather forecast also looked much more promising than just 24 hours earlier.
With Hurricane Ian barreling up the East Coast, the Mets proposed shifting the series opener to Thursday — an off day for both teams. The Braves declined, having played 13 straight days.
By Thursday morning, the forecast called for only a slight chance of showers over the weekend.
The Braves have been chasing the Mets all summer, finally catching them on Sept. 6. But this one has been a nail-biter for a while, the margin no more than three games for more than a month.