Drama and ice cream: Why the Braves and Mets have made the NL East baseball’s most exciting playoff race

Abraham Smith

ATLANTA – The Battle of the NL East has pretty much everything you could want in a fun baseball story, courtesy of the Mets and Braves.

There’s elite pitching, sure. There are exciting young talents, yes. There’s plenty of drama, a bit of trolling, and just the right amount of clapping too. There’s all of that, plus one seemingly great unsung ingredient: ice cream.

With apologies to all other divisions and all other rivalries and campaigns, the NL East is baseball’s most exciting and interesting race this season – and it seems destined to go the distance.

“It’s baseball. You never know,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said Thursday, essentially summarizing the state of the race after his team picked up three of four from the Mets to take New York’s lead to 3 1/2 games To shorten.

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On the surface, that might seem like a big deal, like the Braves are preparing to overtake the Mets within a week or so. But really, it’s just the latest in a series of apparent shifts in momentum between these teams in what has been a back-and-forth battle of sorts for most of the summer – and one that likely won’t be final until the calendar says the games are theirs have run out play.

The Mets had a 10 1/2 game lead when June arrived and appeared poised to run away with the division. Then the Braves won 14 straight to open the month while New York cooled off a bit and that lead fell to four games. The Mets bumped it up to 6 1/2, but the Braves stayed hot, cutting the lead to just a half game shortly after the All-Star break. Theatre! But then it was the Braves’ turn to cool off, and the Mets’ lead increased again as August rolled on.

Then, earlier this month, a five-game series between the teams in New York ensued, in which the Mets brought the Braves into submission by winning four of the five to extend their division lead to seven games and again as clear favorite look. But the old momentum seesaw still worked and, yada, yada, yada, the Braves just picked up three of four from the Mets in Atlanta and are now down 3 1/2 with a lot of baseball left.

The point is, this is what you want in a playoff chase: Two of the league’s elite teams, longtime rivals just going for it and taking advantage of every mistake and opportunity, beating who they should be beating and the best of their heads make – head-to-head fights.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Many of the names in the running for National League MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year can be found on these rosters, plus others who have been there before or are likely to be in the future: Max Scherzer, Austin Riley, Jacob deGrom , Spencer Strider, Pete Alonso, Ronald Acuna Jr., Francisco Lindor, Michael Harris II, Edwin Diaz, Max Fried, Kyle Wright.

In other words, the perfect ingredients for a hot September baseball unmatched by any other division.

But there’s also that one cold ingredient I mentioned earlier.

The Braves’ Thursday night win earned them a new soft-serve machine in the clubhouse, which they seem to care about. Her old machine was removed last season and has been a bit of a sticking point ever since. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud recently asked general manager Alex Anthopoulos if they could get a new one.

“I said if you win three out of four against the Mets, the ice machine is back,” Anthopoulos told Atlanta radio station 92.9 The Game ahead of Thursday’s game. “So these guys were so excited after winning the first two (against the Mets) that obviously tonight is a big game for them.”

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Stupid or serious motivation, the promise of a new machine was still a motivation for Atlanta. After capturing Thursday’s final match up close, Kenley Jansen approached d’Arnaud and mimed a soft-serve cone.

So yeah, it’s a big deal.

“The fact that the ice machine isn’t here is just brutal,” roared shortstop Dansby Swanson in mock anger as he entered the clubhouse after Thursday’s game.

This time of year you take motivation wherever you can get it. Maybe a toppings bar is in order when they finally get first place.

The 3-1/2 game lead the Mets hold when they come into play on Friday seems comfortable for both them and the Braves, but there’s no telling where the race is going from here. The Mets have a very friendly September schedule that includes 16 straight games against losing teams, but there are never guarantees. The Braves’ schedule is a bit tighter, but again, there are no guarantees.

And remember, whoever wins the division gets a first-round bye in new extended playoffs, avoiding a tricky three-game wildcard streak. That could be even more motivating than ice cream.

Even if the race seems to be going one way by this time next week, or even this time next month, just wait a few days and it’ll likely swing the other way again. And everything we’ve seen so far says the seesaw will likely last until the final week of the season when they meet again in Atlanta for those three games.

So enjoy it, baseball fans. Both teams are already tied for the postseason. But how they get there in September could be just as entertaining as anything that happens in October.

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