5 takeaways from the Atlanta Braves series sweep over the New York Mets
By Kevin Henry
Fourth, New York has a tough road ahead
With Atlanta’s magic number to clinch the division at one after the sweep, the Mets have some regrouping to do. For a team with such high expectations entering the season and throughout the year as the division leaders, the Mets must now come to grips with the fact that the path to the World Series just got a lot harder.
Barring a complete collapse by the Braves, New York will host the best-of-three Wild Card series beginning on Friday night at Citi Field. If the season ended on Monday, the Mets would host the San Diego Padres, a team currently one game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies and three ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers for the fifth seed in the NL postseason.
For a team built to win the division, the prospects of having to play in the Wild Card round, then face the top-seeded Dodgers are likely a tough pill for the Mets to swallow.
The Braves sweep the Mets, own the NL East tiebreaker, have a two-game lead with three to play and have likely sent the Mets to a three-game wild card series vs. a great Padres staff and, if they win that, a DS vs. the 110+ win Dodgers with deGrom and Scherzer going just once.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 3, 2022
Can New York shake off the beatdown this weekend in Atlanta and navigate the mine-riddled path through the Wild Card round and to the World Series? How the Mets react to this weekend’s losses moving forward will be very telling.