“Larrrrryyyyyy!” “Larrrrryyyyyy!”
Embarking on my Mets’ fandom at 6-years-old, learning the rivalry with the Atlanta Braves became ingrained in my fabric.
I remember the intense banter between fans of both teams as John Rocker would enter the game, or the aforementioned Larry “Chipper” Jones came to the plate.
As I got older, the Phillies became an arch-enemy on the heels of Jimmy Rollins‘ guaranteeing Philadelphia would win the division over the Mets in 2007. Then it was the Nationals in the mid-2010s. But even still, no team quite got under the skin like the Atlanta Braves.
As I soon came to realize, the rivalry went beyond just the fans. And really, it was a pretty one-sided rivalry at that. The Braves absolutely dominated the Mets.
On Saturday, Ed Leyro (a.k.a. Studious Metsimus on Twitter) logged the team’s futility against Atlanta this year and in recent years.
Against the Braves in 2019, the Mets are 5-11. They are 62-52 against every other opponent. With the win on Saturday, Atlanta also clinched the season series against New York.
According to Leyro’s research, the Mets have won the season series just six times since 1991. They’ve split the season series twice and have lost 21 season series to Atlanta.
The years in which the Mets have won are: 1995, 1997. 2006, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
During this pivotal series this past weekend, Atlanta again made New York look silly, holding them to just seven runs over three games. One run was a home run by Jacob deGrom and that also includes an extra-inning game.
While the Mets sit just two games out of a Wild Card, they will have to rebound against the Chicago Cubs starting Tuesday.
New York plays Atlanta just one more time this year, the last series of the year to conclude the season. Despite their futility and the fact that the Wild Card race will likely come down to the wire, they will get one last chance to muscle up on them.
