Down the stretch of the MLB season, the Braves and Mets spent weeks battling for the NL East crown. In addition to just the status of being a division winner, taking the title would also get the winner a potentially crucial bye in the first round of the MLB playoffs, dooming the second place team to putting their season on the line on a best-of-three series. When the dust settled, including a crucial final weekend battle between the two, the Braves won the division via tiebreaker after both teams won 101 games.
Now, a little more than week into the playoffs, both teams are out, and the third place team from the same division, who finished way back of both, is the first to clinch a spot in a League Championship Series.
Thanks to a 8-3 win on Saturday afternoon, the Phillies, completed a 3-1 series victory over the Braves to advance to the NLCS. In the regular season, Atlanta won 14 more games than Philadelphia, and also won the season series between the two 11-8.
However over the course of four games in this series, the Phillies outscored the Braves 24-10. They capped that off today in a game that featured three Philadelphia home runs, including a unexpected insider-the-parker from catcher J.T. Realmuto.
Capping off a weekend that saw the Phillies play their first home playoff games in 11 years, the win sees them advance to their first NLCS since 2010, when they lost to the Giants.
As for the Braves, their hopes for back-to-back World Series titles ends with an NLDS exit after a 101-win season. It is somewhat amusing that this happened to them considering that they won the 2021 World Series after putting up just 88 wins in the regular season last year.
Almost anything can happen in a short series in baseball. In this case, it was team that wouldn’t have gotten into last year’s playoff format crushing a team that they finished way behind in the regular season.