I never thought I’d say this about the 2026 New York Mets but folks, I’m tired of them. I think y’all would agree with me on that as well. Indeed, the Mets have seemingly had Atlanta’s number this season and it’s coming at an inopportune time — one when the Mets are about as vulnerable as they’ve ever been and in a situation where it would really be in Atlanta’s best interest to rack up as many wins against their extremely-wealthy rivals in New York as possible with the NL East race in mind.
With
that being said, this was one situation where (depending on how you look at things), the Braves either took advantage of some help from South Beach or nearly threw away what was a golden opportunity to really leave the Phillies in the dust once again. Either way, this series in New York didn’t exactly bring a lot of joy but in the grand scheme of things, Atlanta was able to make sure that this road trip was a successful one. Let’s take one last look at this Mets series before the Braves start a four-gamer with the Nationals, shall we?
Monday, July 27
Mets 14, Braves 3
This was actually a close game heading into the sixth inning, as both teams were tied at three runs apiece. Manager Walt Weiss then sent Connor Thomas out there to hopefully bridge them into the later portions of the contest. Thomas then gave up a leadoff single to Tyrone Taylor and Marcus Semien’s 12th homer of the season as the Mets pushed out in front.
From that point forward, Connor Thomas stayed out there for the next 72 pitches. He ended up throwing 78 pitches total and he got absolutely rocked for 11 runs over just 2.2 innings. Jorge Mateo ended up coming in to get the final out of the bottom of the eighth, which is some dark baseball comedy if I’ve ever seen it. Thomas got DFA’d the next day, as well. Just a wild sequence of events.
Wednesday, July 28 (Game 1)
Mets 3, Braves 2
I’m going to share a stat with y’all. Ever since June 9 (the beginning of the “June Swoon,” if you will), Atlanta’s pitching staff has seen opposing batters hit .187/.286/.304 with a wOBA of .270 in two-strike, two out situations. The Braves have posted an ERA of 0.95 and a FIP of 2.33 in those situations where they’re ideally one pitch away from getting out of an inning.
Those numbers don’t look terrible at first glance but when you compare them to what the rest of baseball is doing, it’s pretty poor. That batting average is the ninth-highest number in baseball in that situation, the OBP is actually the fourth-highest number in baseball and the slugging number is in the bottom-10 as well and the wOBA is bottom-five. Both the ERA and FIP numbers are the fifth-worst marks in all of baseball in that situation. If it feels like the Braves have been getting burned lately in those situations, it’s because they have been.
Anyways, I’m sharing that because the Mets scored the game-winning run in this contest in the seventh inning when Carson Benge somehow made very solid contact on a pitch from Dylan Dodd that was nearly neck-high and crushed it into right field for a go-ahead RBI double. The count? 2-2. The number of outs? 2. Yep.
AJ Smith-Shawver pitched well in this one, so we’ve gotta mention it. Very good stuff on his part after having had such a long layoff since his last big-league start.
Wednesday, July 29 (Game 2)
Braves 1, Mets 0
Thank goodness for Chris Sale, man. He wasn’t going for any of the goofiness that had gone on heading up to the nightcap of this rain-induced doubleheader and we ended up getting another six strong innings from the top guy in Atlanta’s rotation. Sale only gave up two hits and struck out nine batters while he was out there and he was completely dominant in his outing.
It’s a good thing he was because this was another incidence of the Braves giving him barely any run support to play with. Christian Scott has been on a roll for the Mets lately and this was another example of it, as he pitched six strong innings, himself and struck out seven Braves batters. However, he did finally slip up in his final inning, which is when Jim Jarvis cracked a double to lead off the frame and then Matt Olson shot one up the middle for an RBI single that brought Jarvis home from third for what wound up being the game’s only run. The bullpen made sure that the slender lead held up and the Braves escaped Gotham by avoiding being swept.
The Braves and Mets have played 10 times so far this season and the Mets are now 6-4 in the season series. That is easily the best record that the Mets have against a team that they’ve played more than four games against. In fact, they’ve actually played the NL East pretty tough so far, as they’re 4-5 against the Phillies, 3-4 against the Nationals and 3-3 against the Marlins.
It’s a small solace knowing that the Mets have decided to be an annoying menace to everybody else in the division and that they aren’t just saving it for the Braves. With that being said, it is still annoying that no matter what type of game these two teams play, it’s likely going to be tough and the Mets are likely going to find a way to win. Whether it’s a pitchers’ duel or a slugfest, the Mets are going stride-for-stride with the Braves and have clearly had Atlanta’s measure so far this season.
Depending on your outlook, this is either a missed opportunity in the divisional race or an example of staying resilient for Atlanta since they were still able to put some more distance between themselves and Philadelphia in the NL East. That’s because Philadelphia inexplicably got swept by the Marlins, who went into this week’s action on a 12-game losing streak that completely stalled out any of the momentum that they may have picked up during their performance in June. The Phillies have certainly slowed down as of late, as they’ve lost nine of their last 12. Despite Atlanta’s wobble against the Mets, the Braves have still done pretty well since the All-Star break and are now back to having a decent amount of breathing room at the top of the division with a 6.5 game lead.
But again, this could be seen as a missed opportunity since the Braves were only able to partially accept the gift that the Marlins gave them instead of taking full advantage with a series win over the Mets or even a sweep. Instead, the Braves will be returning home having salvaged a series against the Mets and having survived a road trip that truly could’ve gone off the rails at any given moment. Maybe it did go off the rails on this past Monday but hey, at least it wasn’t a sweep! Washington’s elite offense awaits in Cobb County, so it’s definitely not going to get any easier!
