When Younghoe Hoo knocked a massive field goal to win a tight game for the Falcons against the Saints earlier today, it may have seemed, at the moment, like the biggest, most important move in Atlanta sports in a 24-hour period. But it might not be. Because tomorrow, there is going to be what is usually considering 'extra baseball', despite being the 161st and 162nd games of the Braves and Mets' season. With all three wild card teams at a standstill, everything will come down to two games in Atlanta, played between the Braves and Mets. The Diamondbacks will have to watch with baited breath, as their win over San Diego was all they could really do to save their season.
And so...this is how it works. If the Braves win one game of the doubleheader, they're in. If they win both games, the Mets are out. If the Mets win both games, the Braves are out. And if the Braves and Mets split the doubleheader, they're both in and the D-Backs are out. Everything comes down to this.
For the Braves, everything coming down to two games in September is...not really what they had predicted at any point. Playing this season without Acuna and Strider, and with varying uses of Albies, Fried and Riley, was difficult. The magic that shone on this team when everyone was healthy last year wasn't here this year. You can argue that three of the most crucial pieces of this team, Chris Sale, Marcell Ozuna and Reynaldo Lopez, were flyer picks that could have succeeded or failed. Even today, Charlie Morton was given the opportunity to lock in a postseason spot and he couldn't. The trajectory for the Braves involved playing more divisional defense than usual, and for a team who routinely were considered the best in the last few years, it was a very rude awakening. The Phils took the division, the Mets lapped them for a month, the playoff spot didn't look like theirs for a bit. But then a lot came together in the last week and here they are.
None of this happens if the Braves don't go 7-1 since Sept. 17th. Harris and Albies are healthy and surging. Schwellenbach, Lopez, Sale and Fried have been unstoppable down the stretch. The bullpen's finishing more dignified than they've been since the championship run. Ozuna's inches from a 40-homer year. The momentum is with this team, and despite a big win over the Brewers, a team they could very well play this week, it's not with the Mets.
If the Braves win, and oust the Mets, it'll be not only because of whatever deity thinks it's hysterical to keep causing Mets fans this misfortune, but because the Braves took an unwinnable season and still made a great run at it. Even if their season somehow ends here, you can't help but respect that.
It's insane that at least one of those teams, likely both, will end up having to play a 3 game series with no off-days starting the day after a doubleheader with no off-days before it. Atlanta should have gone for a doubleheader on Tuesday to avoid this, or agreed to move at least one game.
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