With 38 games left, the Braves are three games back of the Mets. It won’t be an easy hole to climb out of; the Mets are a fantastic team, and like many have pointed out, they have an extremely favorable schedule the rest of the way. However, it’s far from impossible, especially given the Braves schedule, which isn’t extremely tough either.
Today, the Mets will wrap up their two-game series with the Yankees. Then they get a break with the last place Rockies at home for four games before facing the team with the best record in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for three games, which will also take place at Citi Field.
That’s when things really start to get advantageous for the Mets. Following their matchup with the Dodgers, seven of their next eight series are against the Pirates, Cubs, Nationals, Athletics, and Marlins. The only team with a winning record that the Mets play over that stretch is the Brewers, who are currently spiraling out of playoff contention themselves.
Following that incredibly favorable stretch of eight series, the Mets finally meet the Braves again for the final time in the second-to-last series of the season. There’s a very good chance that series will be for all the marbles, providing Atlanta can keep up. For their final three games, the Mets end their season with another cakewalk against the Washington Nationals.
There’s no questioning the Mets have the easier of the two schedules, but it’s not like the Braves are facing murderer’s row. They just wrapped up the toughest part of their schedule and have two more games remaining against the lowly Pirates before heading to St. Louis for a three-game set.
The Cardinals are playing fantastic baseball, and it will probably be the Braves most difficult test besides the Mets at the end of September. Following their trip to St. Louis, the Braves return to Atlanta for a very winnable homestead versus the Marlins and Rockies before an eight-game road trip out West against the Giants, Athletics, and Mariners. Again, all of those series are very winnable.
The final stretch of the schedule features contests against the entire NL East. The Braves play the Phillies and Nationals twice and the Mets and Marlins once to end 2022. It’s not nearly as easy as New York’s, and the Mets also have a three-game cushion to lean on, but the Braves are on pace to win 100 games for a reason. They will be favorites in nearly every game from here on out, and there’s no reason to believe they can’t close the gap by the time the Mets arrive at Truist Park on September 30th.
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Photo: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire
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