Like Their Fans, Players On Braves And Mets Watch The Scoreboard Too

Now it can be told: with the baseball calendar winding down, players on both the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are watching the scoreboard to keep tabs on each other’s games.

The Braves are defending world champions but had to outlast the Mets last year to win their fourth straight National League East title. This year, they’re playing catch-up – though they carved 10 games off New York’s June 1 division lead to close to within a half-game deficit before the margin expanded again this week. But the teams still have seven games left against each other.

Atlanta will complete a five-game series at CitiField Sunday but face the Mets again at Truist Park in a four-game set next week.

Then the teams play a season-ending, three-game series in Atlanta at the end of the schedule.

“It’s going well,” said Mets center-fielder Brandon Nimmo in the New York clubhouse. “Our team is playing really well and it’s fun to be part of it. We’re not only a good team on the field but off the field. We’re around each other more than we’re around our families so it’s good to be around good guys.”

As for scoreboard-watching, Nimmo conceded he indulges – and admits he’s not alone.

“We’ll check in on them,” he said of the Braves, who overcame the Mets with a second-half surge last season.

“Whether we’re home or on the road, you play your game and then check and see if they won or lose. We know we have to win games in order to win our division and it’s not going to come easy so we try to focus on ourselves and winning each day. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say we check a little bit.”

The Mets have not reached the playoffs since 2016 or the World Series since 2015 and have endured a long rivalry with the Braves, who won a record 14 consecutive divisional titles — often at New York’s expense — from 1991-2005.

But that’s ancient history for Nimmo.

Described as “the Happiest Man in Baseball” by Mets broadcasters, the Wyoming native laughed when asked if he had heard that he might be named the team’s first captain since David Wright.

“I don’t know how all that talk came up,” said the 29-year-old Nimmo, who is in the final year of a contract that pays him $7,000,000.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it if that honor were bestowed upon me but that would be something for the team to decide considering there are so many great leaders on the club. It’s hard to set one guy as the captain. But I’m glad to be in the conversation.”

In the visiting clubhouse, Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley, 25, also has reason to be happy: he just signed a 10-year, $212 million contract extension that is the longest and richest in franchise history.

“I’m very fortunate to be with an organization like the Braves,” he said. “For them to put their trust in me, I couldn’t be more happy, from a family standpoint, and super thankful.”

Riley knows he can reap more financial rewards if his team wins its fifth consecutive NL East title – and even more if it repeats its 2021 world championship.

“Every year is a new year with new challenges,” he said. “They’re a really good club over there and playing them creates a playoff atmosphere. “They have some good hitters, their pitching is doing well, and they’re playing exceptional baseball right now. But I think we’re just as good if not better.

“It’s a matter of taking it day-by-day and just trying to play good, solid baseball. If we do that, I like our chances.”

Riley admits he’s a scoreboard-watcher.

“Obviously,” he said when asked about it. “The reason why we’re playing is to try to win another division and make a post-season run. We keep up with them because we’re the team that can catch them.”

Atlanta fell five-and-a-half behind with a double-header defeat Saturday but still has eight Mets games left, including a four-game series in Atlanta next week plus the last three contests of the 2022 campaign, also at Truist Park.

Fellow Braves slugger Ronald Acuña, Jr., who ended a prolonged slump with eight hits in the first four games of the weekend series in Flushing, won’t admit he keeps an eye on other scores.

“I’m just focused on our team, focused on ourselves,” the Venezuelan outfielder said through an interpreter. “It feels good to be in a [pennant] race again but I’m just trying to help my teammates.”

Asked whether he thinks the Mets are better this year, the powerful right-fielder refused comment. “I don’t know, I’m not on their team,” he said, “but I do think we’re a better team.”

Acuña, still rounding into top form after suffering a torn Achilles while trying to make a catch on July 10, 2021, is playing on an eight-year, $100 million deal that will keep him in Atlanta until 2029 – and later if he signs an extension.

Although both teams made a myriad of additions before the Aug. 2 trade deadline, the Mets got immediate dividends this weekend from Tyler Naquin, Darren Ruf, and Daniel Vogelbach. The Braves had less success when they inserted newcomers Robbie Grossman, Raisel Iglesias, and Jake Odorizzi against the Mets.

Odorizzi, obtained from the Houston Astros for lefty reliever Will Smith, was the losing pitcher in the first game of the Saturday twinbill.

The biggest difference between the Mets and Braves is money. New York’s payroll of $261,034,868 ranks second among the 30 teams, according to Spotrac, while Atlanta’s $181,579,487 payroll is ninth. Pitcher Max Scherzer, a 38-year-old right-handed starter who pitched seven scoreless innings to sew up the Saturday nightcap, is in the first year of a three-year, $130 million contract that pays him a record $43.3 million per season.

The highest-paid player on the Braves is Charlie Morton, also a 38-year-old pitcher, who earns $20 million per year.