The Mets and Braves played their most important games of the whole season on Monday, September 30th. The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves had a three-game series scheduled from Tuesday, September 24th, to Thursday, September 26th. After a 5-1 Braves win on Tuesday, Hurricane Helene caused torrential rains at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. MLB moved the next two games of the series to Monday afternoon, the day before the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.
Each team went into the series with an 88-72 record, though the Braves held the tiebreaker over the Mets. With either team sweeping the other, the winning team and the Arizona Diamondbacks would make the playoffs. With a split, both the Mets and Braves would make the playoffs and the Diamondbacks wouldn’t.
Tylor Megill pitched the first game of the doubleheader for the Mets against rookie Spencer Schwellenbach for the Braves. Megill went 5 ⅔ innings allowing three runs and striking out eight. A pitchers’ duel for the first seven innings, Schwellenbach shut out the Mets while Ozzie Albies and Ramon Laureano homered to give the Braves a 3-0 lead.
Tylor Megill celebrates after finishing an inning (Source: Getty Images)
Spencer Schwellenbach struck out five Mets over his seven innings (Source: AP)
Mets centerfielder Tyrone Taylor led off the top of the eighth inning with an 11-pitch at-bat resulting in a double, and the end of Schwellenbach’s outing. Joe Jimenez replaced him but the Mets didn’t give him a chance to settle in. Catcher Francisco Alvarez greeted Jimenez with a run-scoring double. Starling Marte and MVP candidate Francisco Lindor subsequently singled, then Braves manager Brian Snitker aggressively pulled Jimenez for star closer Raisel Iglesias.
Iglesias couldn’t put the inning to the end, as he allowed an RBI single to Jose Iglesias (no relation) followed by a sacrifice fly from Mark Vientos. Brandon Nimmo then put the icing on the cake with a 405-foot home run to right field, giving the Mets a 6-3 lead.
Brandon Nimmo hits a two-run homer to give the Mets a 6-3 lead. (Source: Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)
Setup-man Phil Maton came in to pitch for the Mets in the bottom of the eighth and struggled immediately. Mets first-year manager Carlos Mendoza wasted no time and pulled him for often-erratic closer Edwin Diaz. Diaz got Gio Urshela to ground out for the second out, but proceeded to allow a single to former Mets prospect Jarred Kelenic, then walk Michael Harris II to load the bases, before allowing a bases-clearing double to Ozzie Albies, giving the Braves a 7-6 lead.
Ozzie Albies clears the bases to give Atlanta a 7-6 lead in the 8th (Source: MLB.com)
After an eighth inning with ten total runs, former Colorado Rockies closer Pierce Johnson came in to close the game for the Braves. He retired Francisco Alvarez, but allowed a single to Starling Marte. Francisco Lindor then continued his heroics with a long two-run homer to center to give the Mets an 8-7 lead.
Edwin Diaz stayed in for the Mets to seal the back-and-forth game, and did so successfully, as the Mets clinched the playoffs for the first time since 2022, and the tenth time in history.
Francisco Lindor fields a ground ball to end the game. (Source: Brett Davis/Imagn Images)
The Mets win in Game 1 automatically gave them a playoff spot, so they could rest some players in Game 2. Instead of Luis Severino starting, the Mets called up Joey Lucchesi to rest the bullpen.
The Braves had planned to start Cy Young frontrunner Chris Sale for Game 2, but he’d experienced back spasms the night before and couldn’t pitch. Instead, Snitker slotted rookie long reliever Grant Holmes as the starter.
Lucchesi gave the Mets a quality start and the bullpen a much needed rest, throwing six innings of one-run baseball with five strikeouts.
Grant Holmes dominated the Mets for four innings, only allowing one hit with seven strikeouts, despite having thrown an inning the day before. He handed it over to Daysbel Hernandez who retired five straight batters. Raisel Iglesias took over the game in the ninth to get the save, as Hernandez got the win, clinching playoff berth.
Grant Holmes shut down the Mets for four innings (Source: MLB)
Both teams celebrated playoff berths after the game.
For the Mets, the celebration was about their second-half rebound. After not starting the season well, the Mets were able to “keep [their] shoulders above water.” Francisco Lindor said after the game. “We never believed that we were drowning.”
Brian Snitker spoke on the importance of their consistent resilience, and having a next man up mindset. Three of the Braves’ best hitters, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley were hurt for the better part of the season. “It takes the whole building to make something special like this happen,” he explained after the game. “You are never guaranteed this.”
The Braves’ Game 2 win gave them the fifth seed in the National League Playoffs, as the Mets took the sixth and final seed. The Mets now go back to Milwaukee to play a best-out-of-three Wild Card Round series, and the Braves to San Diego for the same.
