New York Mets vs Atlanta Braves: 5 bold predictions for series of the weekend

Mets pitching will come up big in Atlanta

There is a reason why the Mets signed Max Scherzer to a massive contract in the offseason, and that reason will show itself once again this weekend at Truist Park.

Here are the scheduled pitching matchups for the weekend, with Atlanta pitchers listed first:

Friday: Max Fried vs. Jacob deGrom

Saturday: Kyle Wright vs. Max Scherzer

Sunday: Charlie Morton vs. Chris Bassitt

So far this season, the 38-year-old Scherzer is 3-0 with a 2.21 ERA and 0.639 WHIP in three starts covering 20.1 innings against Atlanta, averaging 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings. That includes a 2-0 mark in Atlanta, with the ERA (3.38) slightly rising, but the WHIP (0.675) and strikeouts per nine (11.5) almost on par with the overall stats.

Our predictions? The Braves win Friday behind Fried before the Mets even the series on Saturday with Scherzer on the mound. That leaves Sunday and the Morton-Bassitt matchup. We talked about Morton in the slide discussing home-field dominance for Atlanta, but we haven’t touched on Bassitt yet. As it turns out, we’ll predict that he becomes a very important piece of this whole weekend.

Bassitt scattered five hits and one run over six innings in Atlanta on July 13 as the Mets went on to win 6-3. Look for him to repeat a performance like that in the Sunday series finale, giving New York the series win in Atlanta and adding another game to their lead in the NL East.

Overall, we predict New York wins the series, 2-1 and goes on to win the National League East.