Well, the Atlanta Braves did enough in their series against the Marlins over the weekend to keep their playoff hopes alive. All of the Braves' injuries have taken their toll in 2024, but Atlanta finds themselves within two games of a wild card spot with six games left in the regular season. Standing in their way as the biggest obstacle (and potentially the biggest opportunity) to that goal is the division rival Mets.
Tension is likely to be high between these two teams when they meet up this week. Mets fans have already been talking a lot of smack this year (to be fair, so would Braves fans if the roles were flipped) and New York has been openly celebrating every Braves loss down the stretch. With all of the history between these two squads, matchups like the one this week is really what baseball is all about.
However, not only the stakes huge in terms of the 2024 playoffs, but this upcoming home series with the Mets could go down as the most impactful regular season series in the history of their rivalry.
Edwin Díaz secures a six-out save 🎺
— MLB (@MLB) September 23, 2024
The @Mets hold a two-game lead over the Braves in the NL Wild Card race with a three-game series in Atlanta starting Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/YGKjcQrNKn
Braves' final week series with Mets could go down in history as an all-timer
Obviously there are a lot of series to choose from here as both the Braves and Mets have battled in the same division since 1994 when Atlanta joined the NL East after the divisions were realigned. In the subsequent three decades, these teams and their fans have grown to truly hate each other as the rivalry has become one of the most heated in baseball (although the Braves have dominated most of it).
However, two regular season series do come to mind as worth comparing. One was recent as the Braves overtook the Mets in the final week of the 2022 season to win the NL East again. However, both teams were guaranteed playoff spots by the point, so that was more for playoff seeding and bragging rights. The 1999 season is another as the Mets had lingering hopes of winning the division before some guy named Chipper Jones basically singlehandedly crushed New York's hopes across two different series that September. The Braves also beat the Mets in the NLCS that year and that felt quite nice.
In both of these cases, the Mets and Braves still ended up making the playoffs. That could easily not be the case after this series. The winner of this series will hold the tiebreaker over the loser as it would also mean they win the regular season series between the two squads. That would effectively give the winner of the series an extra game to play with over the loser which means that, for better or worse, the Braves control their own destiny this week.
Now, there is a world where both the Braves and Mets get into the playoffs as the Diamondbacks have done their damnedest to throw away their playoff chances lately. However, the odds right now are that only one of the Braves and Mets get in and that makes this upcoming series a true "must-win" for both clubs.