Braves send clear message to Mets that they’re chasing them down

The Atlanta Braves did exactly what they needed to do in their series vs. the New York Mets.

Not long after getting embarrassed up in Flushing, the Atlanta Braves responded by taking three of four over the New York Mets in Cumberland.

After losing four of five in Queens, the Braves have lost precisely one game since then. They swept the Boston Red Sox during a two-game stint in Beantown and made the Miami Marlins fish out of water in their four-gamer down in South Beach. Atlanta then took the first tow over New York at home before falling in Game 3 Wednesday. The Braves then eked out a series winner on Thursday.

Now only 3.5 games back in the division, Atlanta has shown that this NL East race is far from over.

Atlanta Braves show New York Mets they mean serious business in series win

Admittedly, these two bitter rivals are fairly evenly matched. Atlanta has considerably more pop at the plate, while the Mets feature two future Hall of Famers anchoring the rotation. Barring a major catastrophe on either side, these will be two of the six teams playing postseason baseball in the Senior Circuit. However, only one of them can win the division and get the crucial first-round bye.

The winner of this division will be presumably a top-two seed in the NL, which would mean avoid playing in the three-game NL Wild Card series. Though the second-place finisher projects as the No. 4 seed, do the Braves or Mets really want the rival Philadelphia Phillies or the San Diego Padres coming to town? Either way, there are only three more meetings left between the teams.

As fate would have it, the final regular-season series will be at Truist Park between Atlanta and New York. It could be for all the marbles, or at the very least, postseason positioning. Although the weather will be considerably cooler by then, things will only be heating up on the baseball field in early October. Not all division races are created equal, as this is the best one in baseball right now.

Atlanta will host the Houston Astros this weekend, while New York is traveling to Philadelphia.