No Breathing Room In Dramatic NL East Race Between Braves And Mets

With less than three weeks left in the 2022 National League schedule, the Los Angeles Dodgers will be runaway winners in the West, the St. Louis Cardinals are likely to take the Central, and the East remains a toss-up between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets.

And oh, what a toss-up!

The Braves, seeking their fifth straight NL East crown, are also hoping to become the first NL club to win consecutive world championships since the 1975-66 Cincinnati Reds. And they’re playing like it.

Since June 1, Atlanta has produced a 63-24 record that whittled 10 games off New York’s early lead. The Braves even sniffed the alpine air of first place for the first time this season on Sept. 6, when they extended a winning streak and the Mets lost their third in a row — ending their streak of sole possession of first place at 147 days.

That left the clubs tied at 84-51. But New York took a half-game lead the next day by sweeping a day-night doubleheader in Pittsburgh, off-setting Atlanta’s comeback victory in Oakland.

Now the Braves are in Seattle, where the Mariners are desperate to end a 21-year playoff drought that is baseball’s longest, while the Mets have moved south to Miami, where the Marlins, next to last in the NL East, are playing out the string with an eye on next year.

The next six days could determine a lot, as the Braves have three in Seattle and three in San Francisco before returning home to face third-place Philadelphia, another team long absent from postseason play (nothing since 2011).

With playoffs expanded to six teams per league by the new Basic Agreement, both the Mariners and Phillies are on a mission to secure wild-card berths. But the Braves are on a mission too.

The youngest team in the league imported a pair of 21-year-old rookies, Michael Harris II and Vaughn Grissom, from Double-A to the starting lineup and moved fellow freshman Spencer Strider from the bullpen to the rotation after Ian Anderson, a past post-season stud, faltered.

Harris, an Atlanta native, and Strider, who fanned a club-record 16 men last week, are now leading candidates for NL Rookie of the Year.

Brian Snitker, the league’s oldest manager, has to find room in his lineup for Ozzie Albies, rehabbing a broken foot in Triple-A, and Mike Soroka, a starting pitcher who is also a former All-Star. Soroka has missed most of the last two years after tearing his Achilles twice.

Snitker is already protecting his biggest star, Ronald Acuna Jr., by shielding his surgically-repaired ACL from the rigors of right field. Acuna has been leading off after complaining of knee pain.

In the front office, general manager Alex Anthopoulos signed his young corps to extensions, including a 10-year, $212 million deal for slugging third baseman Austin Riley that was the largest contract in team history. Also signed long-term are Acuna, Albies, newly-acquired first baseman Matt Olson, and even Harris, a gifted center-fielder who got an eight-year, $72 million deal after just 71 games in the majors.

According to Spotrac, Atlanta ranks ninth among the 30 teams with a payroll of $181,780,482, far below New York’s outlay of $262,830,964. That’s because the Mets are the main benefactors of Steve Cohen, who earned billions in the hedge funds business.

He lavished 38-year-old pitcher Max Scherzer with a three-year deal that pays a record $43.3 million per annum and may have to pay more to keep 34-year-old Jacob deGrom, his other rotation superstar, from opting out of his contract and entering free agency this fall.

Both pitchers have had physical problems this season, with Scherzer currently on the injured list with left side tightness. Fortunately for the Mets, the team also owns lights-out closer Edwin Diaz, a right-handed strikeout machine certain to get votes for the league’s Cy Young Award.

No Met has ever won National League MVP honors and that trend should continue with Pete Alonso, the team’s lone slugger, mired in a recent power vacuum. But the Mets are masters of pecking away, not striking out nearly as often as the Braves but not hitting as many home runs either.

Even without the injured Albies and Adam Duvall, both 30-homer men last year, Atlanta leads the league in long balls.

According to MLB.com, the Mets are the eighth team of the divisional play era, which started in 1969, to take a double-digit lead in the division but allow another team to tie or pass them. If they can take advantage of the weak teams on their remaining schedule, that would be forgotten.

The Mets will face the Marlins (5 times), Pirates (4), Brewers (3), Cubs (3), Athletics (3), Nationals (3), and Braves (3). New York holds a 9-7 edge in the season’s series against Atlanta so the Braves would need to sweep the three-game Truist Park set that starts Sept. 30 to avoid any possibility of finishing in a season-ending tie with the Mets. To avoid extra playoff games, Major League Baseball will decide ties by awarding titles to winners of head-to-head match-ups between the clubs.

In the meantime, Atlanta puts its seven-game winning streak on the line in Seattle tonight. Their schedule includes the Mariners (3), Giants (3), Marlins (3), Mets (3), Nationals (6), and Phillies (7), with most of their remaining games on the road.

Snitker, an organization man who has been with the Braves since 1977, doesn’t worry about the schedule. “You love that time of year when you wake up, get a cup of coffee and you can’t wait to get to the ballpark, because you want to play the next game,” he said. “These games all mean something and that’s what you play for.”

Mets manager Buck Showalter, a year younger than the 66-year-old Snitker, feels the same way. He and general manager Billy Eppler are among many first-year Mets brought in by Cohen, along with pitcher Chris Bassitt, third baseman Eduardo Escobar, outfielders Starling Marte and Mark Canha, and role players Tyler Naquin, Daniel Vogelbach, and Darrin Ruf.

Both teams are on pace for 100-win seasons but only one will win the division. With that honor comes a first-round bye in the playoffs, with the top wild-card winner hosting a best-of-three series at its home ballpark. Not since 1999, when the Braves went 5-1 against the Mets in September meetings, have the two long-term rivals been so close in the final month.