This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat e-newsletter. To learn the complete e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
ATLANTA — In the event you would have identified six members (beginning pitcher included) of the Opening Day lineup would miss at the least two months this yr, would you’ve got thought the Braves would enter the common season’s remaining week with an opportunity to succeed in the postseason?
What when you knew Spencer Strider would make only one begin and Ronald Acuña Jr. would play simply two months earlier than struggling season-ending accidents? Let’s not neglect, you had no concept that Chris Sale and Reynaldo López had been going to go from initiatives to elite starters.
A few of you had by no means heard of Spencer Schwellenbach — and people of you who had, you had no clue he was going to even attain the Majors this yr.
So, yeah, it’s exceptional that Atlanta nonetheless has an opportunity to succeed in the playoffs because it prepares for a six-game homestand to shut out the common season. The primary three video games will come in opposition to the Mets (87-69) — who, just like the D-backs (87-69), sit two video games forward of the Braves (85-71) within the battle for the Nationwide League’s remaining Wild Card spot.
This week’s showdown in opposition to the Mets is much like the one we witnessed in 2022, when the Braves erased a one-game deficit with a three-game sweep of their division foes from New York. However there’s an enormous distinction. No matter who ended up profitable the NL East that yr, each groups had been heading to the postseason.
There’s an opportunity Atlanta and New York might each attain the playoffs this yr, however provided that Arizona falters throughout this remaining week.
The Braves-Mets rivalry is one which has been one-sided in relation to vital sequence, particularly these performed over the previous 25 years. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan helped the Mets sweep the Braves within the 1969 NL Championship Collection.
However there’s a cause Mets followers don’t like to listen to names like Chipper Jones, Eddie Perez, Dansby Swanson or Matt Olson this time of yr.
Earlier than simply assuming the Mets are going to Mets once more, keep in mind that they personal MLB’s finest document (63-36) since June 1. New York additionally ranks second within the Majors with a 2.28 beginning pitching ERA in September.
As for the injury-depleted Braves, certainly one of their present well being issues may very well be Sale. Nicely, Sale made it clear nothing was bothering him when his four-seam fastball velocity dropped under 90 mph throughout Thursday’s recreation in Cincinnati.
However the Braves have nonetheless opted to provide him an additional day of relaxation, by lining him as much as begin Wednesday’s recreation in opposition to the Mets. If Sale began Tuesday, he would have nonetheless been obtainable to pitch the regular-season finale, if vital, on common relaxation.
Now, it could be Schwellenbach who takes the ball on the common season’s remaining day with an opportunity to push the Braves into the postseason.
However with Schwellenbach, Sale and Max Fried set to begin in opposition to the Mets this week, the Braves want to get the sweep which may create the prospect to enter the regular-season finale having already clinched a spot.
The winner of this week’s three-game set will win the season sequence and personal the tiebreaker in the event that they had been to conclude the 162-game season with equivalent information.
