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Without having to dive too terribly deep into the Mets & what they have ahead of them I can confidently say that they are only a threat to win the East because of proximity. Nothing more. They’re without deGrom & Lindor. Conforto has forgotten how to hit. Baez has more on-field altercations & strikeouts than hits since going to New York. And most of all, they’re the Mets. Until cocaine becomes legal or MLB stops testing for it, they won’t recapture the magic of 1986 anytime soon.
This piece is about the Phillies & the Braves. The two NL East contenders.
Remaining Games: Braves
The Braves remaining schedule breaks down like this:
Games against 1st place teams: NINE. Three of those are against Philadelphia.
Games against 2nd place teams: SIX. All out of the division.
Games against 3rd place teams: NINE. Three of those are against the Mets.
Games against 4th place teams: TEN. Six of those are against the Nationals.
Games against last place teams: THIRTEEN. Six of those are against the Mets.
The Braves remaining schedule also includes sixteen games against playoff teams (as of today). Thirty-two games against non-playoff teams plus 3 games against the team we’re chasing, plus 3 games against the team we’re trying to create distance from. The Division is there for the taking. The Braves are 9.5 games from being the first wildcard & 6 games from being the second wildcard.
The bright side of that is that the Braves have 10 games remaining with the three teams ahead of them for the first wildcard spot & 7 games against the two team between them and the second wildcard spot.
Remaining Games: Phillies
Philadelphia’s remaining schedule breaks down like this:
Games against 1st place teams: FIVE. They’re the NL East leaders, so all of these are out of the division.
Games against 2nd place teams: NINE. Three of these are against the Braves.
Games against 3rd place teams: SIX. Three of these are against the Mets.
Games against 4th place teams: TEN. Three of these are against the Nationals.
Games against last place teams: TWENTY. Six of these are against the Marlins.
The blatant discrepancy between Philly & Atlanta’s remaining games is that the Phillies have double the amount of games against division cellar-dwellers than the Braves. The silver lining in that though is that six of those games are against the Marlins, who Philadelphia for some reason struggles mightily against. Although, they’re 8-6 head to head with Miami this season. Seven of their remaining games are against the Diamondbacks, who are also in last place of their division. Philadelphia has not faced Arizona this season.
Of the twenty games against last place teams, eleven are at home & nine are away.
The Daily Braves 