During our weekly preview post, I very politely asked the Atlanta Braves to beat the New York Mets in their final series matchup of the season. In addition to the benefits that come from continuing to win ballgames at this point in the season, it just would’ve been plain nice to see the Braves actually take care of business against New York for once.
It certainly wasn’t going to be the easiest of tasks, considering how well New York had been hitting since the All-Star break and how the rest of the season series had gone up until this particular point in time. As such, the ask seemed more like a polite request instead of a demand. Either way, the Braves granted our wish and now it’s time to discuss just how things went during this series in Cobb County.
Monday, August 10
Mets 8, Braves 5
The first inning nearly proved to be decisive and it also proved to be strange as well. Bryce Elder got tagged for a double by leadoff hitter A.J. Ewing and it took replay officials a ton of time to figure out that a ground-rule double was because of the umpire and not because the ball was lodged under the right-field wall. Once it was 1-0 Mets, there was further controversy when Bryce Elder seemingly signaled for a challenge on a 3-2 pitch that was ruled a walk. Instead of a strike-em-out throw-em-out to end the inning, the inning continued and that set the stage for Elder to tee one up for Brett Baty to crush and make it 5-0 in the eighth inning.
From that point forward, the Braves were busy trying to scratch-and-claw their way back into the contest and for a while, it seemed like it was possible. Even though New York canceled out the two runs that the Braves snatched back in their half of the first inning, the Braves scored three across the fourth and fifth inning to get to within two runs. Drake Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr. delivered RBI singles in the fourth inning and then Michael Harris II scored on a wild pitch from Jonathan Pintaro to make it a two-run game in the fifth inning. It was game on!
Unfortunately, the offense came to a screeching halt from the sixth inning onwards. Atlanta had a runner in scoring position in both the seventh and the ninth inning but they couldn’t scratch a run across and once the ninth inning rolled around, they were down three after Jared Young’s sacrifice fly in New York’s half of the ninth gave them an insurance run. The game ended 8-5 and the Mets had clinched the season series against the Braves for the first time since 2017. Woof.
Tuesday, August 11
Braves 4, Mets 0
How about Martín Pérez, y’all? The unheralded hero of this Atlanta rotation is now sitting on a scoreless innings streak of 18 innings after he added six more to that tally on Tuesday night. It certainly wasn’t easy and it definitely required a huge inning-ending double play in the top of the sixth with runners on the corners but Pérez was able to get that ground ball for a defense that has been very adept at getting grounders and turning them for two.
The double play ball helped keep the Braves up 1-0 on the Mets after Ozzie Albies bopped one out at Nolan McLean’s expense in the fifth inning. For seven full innings, that was actually the only hit that the Braves had — and yet they went into the eighth inning up 2-0 after Mauricio Dubón’s sacrifice fly gave Atlanta a precious insurance run.
While fans of Weird Baseball probably would’ve preferred to see the Braves figure out a way to win a game 2-0 with only one hit, fans of the Braves in general were probably very pleased to see Matt Olson absolutely crack one into the Chop House for his 35th dinger of the season. Just like that, the Braves were comfortably ahead and thanks to the combination of Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias all throwing perfect innings, Atlanta’s pitching completed a dominant night and the Braves sauntered to victory.
Wednesday, August 12
Braves 6, Mets 3
You know, Tyler Mahle was probably thinking “Hey man, the Braves did get a starting pitcher at the deadline,” while everybody was upset about how Atlanta handled business during this year’s trade deadline. Mahle was impressive in the Bronx and he picked up where he left off there in his Truist Park debut. He tossed another six innings where he struck out seven Mets batters and only gave up one run while he was out there. So far, so good for the jewel of Atlanta’s trade deadline.
Speaking of the deadline, Mahle had himself some run support thanks to fellow deadline acquisition Lane Thomas. Thomas swatted his first dinger as a Braves player in the second inning to put the Braves in front and that’s where Atlanta would stay for the entire contest. Atlanta was up 3-0 after five innings before Luis Torrens threatened to ruin things in the sixth inning with a solo shot that ended the shutout bid. Luis Robert Jr. smacked one out in the seventh inning to make it 3-2 and just like that, New York had life the game was on a knife-edge again.
Fortunately, the Braves responded immediately with a three-run flurry in their half of the second. Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Riley went back-to-back with solo homers in order to get both of those runs back and then they got an extra run for good measure after Drake Baldwin cashed in a double from Ronald Acuña Jr. with an RBI single off of Jefry Yan. Yan did get a strikeout but he only did the shimmy part of his celebration instead of jumping out of the gym like the Migos in 2012.
New York gave Braves Country one last heart palpitation in the ninth inning, which is when Bo Bichette homered off of Raisel Iglesias to lead off the frame. Carson Benge doubled right after that and then Iggy walked Luis Robert Jr. in order to bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out. Iglesias clamped down from that point forward and the Braves won but hoo boy, things have been getting a bit too interesting with Iggy lately. Also, you knew the Mets weren’t just going to roll over quietly so the drama wasn’t a huge surprise. I am not going to miss seeing this Mets team this year!
So while the Braves had to suffer the ignominy of losing seven whole entire ballgames to the New York Mets here in 2026, they can at least take some solace in the fact that they were able to take care of business in this series and at least pick up a series win. If anything, it proves that this is truly one of those rivalries where you can throw out the records whenever these two teams play. Even during that streak of season series wins dating back to 2017, a series against the Mets usually ended up being tough. You have to give credit to New York for continuing to bring the intensity even in a season where they struggled against nearly everybody else.
Still, the Braves absolutely needed to take care of business and they got the job done. It was certainly encouraging to see Martín Pérez continue to roll on the mound and Tyler Mahle could end up being a true deadline day revelation if he keeps on performing like this. Additionally, Matt Olson swinging his way into a four-way tie at the top of the home run leaderboard has definitely been fun to watch and it would absolutely be great to see him continue to keep swinging at a high level. He’s on track to exceed what he did last season at the plate and it’s great to see him do it for a team that has the Postseason firmly in its sights instead of last year’s team that flailed around for the most part.
Speaking of the Postseason, this was a productive series for Atlanta since Philadelphia dropped a series in St. Louis and the divisional lead is now back up to 9.5 games — just one game behind what was originally their largest lead of the season which came back on May 22 when they were up by 10.5 games. The Braves have been playing some good baseball since the All-Star Break while the Phillies have slowed down from the furious pace that they were setting once Don Mattingly took the reins and now the Braves are back in full control of the division.
These two teams still have seven games to play against each other down the stretch and the Braves are going to have a tough schedule down the stretch but as long as Atlanta can keep it steady, they’ll have the upper hand moving forward. Taking care of business against this Mets team was crucial and hopefully we’ll continue to see the Braves keep it moving in the right direction as they prepare for a tough Diamondbacks squad this weekend.