New York Mets, Atlanta Braves battle for NL East and first-round bye

On Friday night, New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was able to limit the Atlanta Braves to five hits over six innings. Unfortunately for the New York Mets, three of those hits were solo homers on Atlanta’s way to a 5-2 victory.

Austin Riley and Matt Olson went back-to-back in the second inning and Dansby Swanson added the third homer of the night for the Braves in the sixth inning. Max Fried picked up the much-needed win for the home team in this battle of aces.

With the win, the Braves and Mets now share identical records of 98-59 for the season. The two teams will square off again on Saturday night and Sunday night in Atlanta. The Mets will then host the Washington Nationals for the final three games of the season, while the Braves will travel to Miami to take on the Marlins for their final three games.

Atlanta Braves and New York Mets tied at 98-59, but New York still holds tiebreaker

Despite having identical records, the New York Mets currently still hold the tiebreaker (remember … there will be no Game 163 per the new playoff format) over the Braves. The Braves will need to win both of the next two games to take the head-to-head tiebreaker advantage away from the Mets.

The next two games will be exciting ones. Saturday night, the great Max Scherzer will face off against Kyle Wright of Atlanta. Scherzer is the epitome of a big game pitcher and should be up for the task. Wright has exploded onto the MLB scene this season. The fifth overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Vanderbilt boasts a record of 20-5 and a 3.18 ERA. This will be the biggest start of the young hurler’s career. He hasn’t backed down from anyone this year, and this matchup should make for some must watch television (on FOX).

After the marquee pitching matchups of Friday and Saturday, there is an expected drop off for Sunday Night Baseball, but only slightly. The Mets will send the very capable Chris Bassitt to the bump and the Braves will counter with the crafty veteran, Charlie Morton.

Not only are the teams battling to see who will take the NL East, but with the new playoff format this year, the winner of the division will end up being the number two seed in the NL playoffs and receive a first-round bye. Having a bye in the first round and having the rotation in order will be a big advantage to whoever ends up on top.

Even if you’re not a Mets or Braves fan, this weekend’s games will be exciting as they are giving us some playoff-type baseball, just a little early.