Late September series could revive Braves and Mets rivalry

The NL Wild Card race has all of the components of what baseball was hoping for when they expanded the playoffs. Four quality clubs playing great baseball and vying for three spots, including several division rivals.

As of the time of this writing, the Braves sit just 0.5 games up on their NL East foes from New York for the third and final Wild Card spot, with just one late September showdown remaining between the two clubs. It’s giving very similar vibes to the 2022 season, when the Braves and Mets clashed in the second-to-last series of the season to decide the NL East. Atlanta needed a sweep, while New York just needed to win one game.

We all know how that one ended, with the Braves going on to win their fifth straight division title at the time. But it still felt like we were at the beginning of a stretch of lengthy division battles between the Braves and Mets. Atlanta’s relevance was obvious, given their dominance in the division, but New York looked like a club that was here to say, thanks to new owner Steve Cohen, who showed a willingness to spend as much as possible to bring the Mets organization its first World Series since 1986.

The following season, however, went nothing like Cohen imagined. Despite spending more than every club, aging veterans underperforming and injuries led to the Mets having a firesale at the trade deadline. The plan was to build the organization from the ground up, which Cohen referred to as a two-year job, but the Mets have proven to be ahead of schedule, sitting 12 games over .500 with less than a month to go, playing their best baseball of the season, and chasing down the Braves in hopes of returning the favor for that gut-wrenching end to the 2022 campaign.

The difference this year, however, is the loser of the second-to-last series of the season very well could miss the postseason entirely. That will only make it that much sweeter for the Mets, who have been utterly dominated by the Braves over the last three decades. New York might have the opportunity to end the Braves season before getting to October for the first time since 2017, and for Atlanta, they have a chance to remind little brother that, despite all of the injuries, they are still a long way from getting over the hump and competing for championships.

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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire