The most important series of the 2022 MLB regular season will take place this weekend at Truist Park. The defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves will host the NL East rival New York Mets for three games with the division title very much on the line. The two clubs have been virtually side-by-side in the standings for weeks.
Here is the top of the NL East standings. The Marlins, Nationals, and Phillies have already been eliminated from the division race, so it’s down to these two teams:
- Mets: 98-58
- Braves: 97-59 (1 GB)
Wednesday was a monumental day for the NL East race. The Mets erased a 4-0 deficit to beat the Marlins while the Braves fell to the lowly Nationals in 10 innings. For a few hours it appeared the Braves and Mets would enter this series with identical records, then Eduardo Escobar led the comeback for the Amazin’ Mets.
“You try not to scoreboard watch, but where we are in the season, six games left, neck and neck with these guys, we’re in here watching it, too,” Mets righty Taijuan Walker told MLB.com after Wednesday’s win. “Us winning the game, it’s huge.”
It should be noted both the Braves and Mets have already clinched a postseason berth. The NL East winner will be the No. 2 seed and get a Wild Card Series bye. They go directly to the NLDS while the runner-up is stuck playing a best-of-three Wild Card Series, though they will host all three games. Obviously the bye has enormous value, as skipping an entire round is huge.
Here are the details for this weekend’s enormous three-game series at Truist Park. Games on MLB Network, Fox, and ESPN can be streamed on fuboTV (try for free).
|
Friday, Sept. 30 |
7:20 p.m. ET |
LHP Max Fried (13-7, 2.50) vs. RHP Jacob deGrom (5-3, 2.93) |
Bally Sports Southeast, SNY, MLB |
|
Sat., Oct. 1 |
7:20 p.m. ET |
RHP Kyle Wright (20-5, 3.18) vs. RHP Max Scherzer (11-4, 2.13) |
Fox |
|
Sun., Oct. 2 |
7:08 p.m. ET |
RHP Chris Bassitt (15-8, 3.27) vs. RHP Charlie Morton (9-6, 4.29) |
ESPN |
You couldn’t ask for better pitching matchups (at least while Spencer Strider is on the injured list). The Braves pushed Fried back earlier this week to line him up for this series, and the Mets rearranged their rotation to allow deGrom to start the opener. Each team is starting their three best this weekend, and because both clubs had an off-day…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CBSSports.com Headlines…