The National League playoff picture has been reshaped by a pair of results in getaway day matinees. With the Atlanta Braves‘ loss (16-7 to the Milwaukee Brewers) and the New York Mets‘ win (9-1 over the Colorado Rockies), the Braves have seen their half-game lead turn into a half-game deficit for the third and final wild-card spot.
In turn, the Braves would be on the outside looking in for the first time since 2017 if the playoffs started tomorrow.
The Braves, who were six games ahead of the Mets entering July 9, are now in the midst of a five-game losing streak. Atlanta is 2-5 in August as a result, and is now 7-12 in the second half. The Mets, conversely, have now raced to a 12-8 start to the second half.
Neither team is a serious threat for the National League East crown at this point. Although the Philadelphia Phillies have scuffled as of late, they entered Thursday with a 7 1/2-game lead that doubles as the largest held by any current division leader.
The Braves will begin a three-city, 10-game west-coast road trip with matchups looming against the Rockies, San Francisco Giants, and Los Angeles Angels. The Mets, contrariwise, will wrap up their own road trip with three against the Seattle Mariners before returning home to begin a nine-game homestand with visits from the Oakland Athletics, Miami Marlins, and the Baltimore Orioles.
According to FanGraphs’ data, the Braves entered Thursday with a marginally softer schedule the rest of the way: their opponents had won 48.6% of their games this season, as opposed to the Mets’ foes winning 49.9% of their games.
It’s worth noting that the Braves and Mets will play three more games against each other before the regular season ends, with those coming in Atlanta during the final week. There’s still a lot of baseball to be played between now and then, but there’s a distinct possibility those games end up determining which of these clubs makes the postseason. To make matters more enticing, the winner of that series will walk away with the season series — and the decisive tiebreaker, should it come to that.
