Anytime a team that trails by 10.5 games in the division comes back and wins said division, the immediate reaction will be that the team that once led the division collapsed in epic fashion. In most cases, that would be correct, but Braves super-reliever A.J. Minter doesn’t believe that’s what happened in the NL East this season.
#Braves' A.J. Minter: “The Mets didn’t blow it, we took it from them…We just played out of our minds.”
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) October 5, 2022
As much as I would love to clown Mets fans for choking away another division lead, I have to agree with Minter on this one. They didn’t blow it. Since owning a 10.5-game division lead on June 1st, they’ve gone 65-44. They won 100 games in the regular season for just the fourth time in franchise history. The Braves… just went nuclear when it mattered most.
Since June 1st, Atlanta went 77-33 to clinch the NL East. That’s a 114-win pace. They’ve been far and away the class of baseball over the last four months, and they delivered in resounding fashion at Truist Park this past weekend when they needed to sweep the Mets.
Did the Mets waste some opportunities to put the Braves away? Yes, but so did the Braves. That’s baseball; anyone can win on any given day. Both teams had fantastic seasons, but it’s much easier to look at it that way when your team has just won its fifth consecutive division title.
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