Mets and Braves anything but rivals right now

There’s this scene in AMC”s adorned collection, “Mad Males,” during which younger copywriter Michael Ginsberg confronts Don Draper in an elevator over a call his company’s inventive director had made.

“I really feel unhealthy for you,” an aggrieved Ginsberg says.

“I don’t take into consideration you in any respect,” Draper says, striding out of the elevator with out even a look at his worker.

At Citi Area Friday evening, the Mets performed the Ginsberg position.

The Braves had been Don Draper.

It was 7-0 with the score reflecting the ugliness of this matchup between division-leading Atlanta and the moribund Mets, who slipped to 21 ½ video games behind Atlanta within the standings. Do you see why the Braves aren’t giving any thought in any respect to the crew in Queens?

Are you sufficiently old to recollect when this was speculated to be a rivalry? It appeared as if it was final yr, when the Mets constructed a lead over the Braves that stood at 6 ½ video games on Aug. 7 after taking 4 of 5 from Atlanta. New Yorkers partied prefer it was 1969 when the Mets swept the Braves three straight within the first-ever NLCS earlier than profitable the World Collection in 5 video games towards the Orioles.

However alas and alack and with out Tommie Agee or Cleon Jones or Nolan Ryan or J.C. Martin, the Mets collapsed and had been overtaken by the Braves for the division crown. The Mets have completed behind the Braves 16 instances over the previous 23 seasons, 11 instances by greater than an 11-game hole within the standings. Is that the stuff of a rivalry?

Ginsberg and Draper.

You’d be tempted to say that the Mets who took the sector for this one had non-compete clauses of their contracts however that may not fairly be truthful. When Francisco Lindor became a last minute scratch with right-side soreness that developed after batting observe and thus ended the shortstop’s consecutive sport streak at 223 (114-for-114 this yr), the Mets despatched out a lineup that featured 4 beginning place gamers with fewer than 100 at-bats within the majors.

They grinded towards Charlie Morton, who issued seven walks (and solely three hits) in 5 innings. However the basepaths at Citi was the place the place Mets had been left to die, 14 of them total whereas the membership went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring place.

It appeared loads just like the three-game sweep in Kansas Metropolis the crew endured instantly following the deadline purge or perhaps the three-game sweep sustained proper after that in Baltimore. The Mets had been outscored by an combination 39-14 by the six video games.

However they took two of three from the Cubs this week after returning dwelling. It appeared as if the Mets may need emerged from the malaise that adopted the deadline. It appeared as if the gamers lastly had been capable of put the purge within the rearview.

“I believe that could be legitimate. It’s not one thing you may rush,” supervisor Buck Showalter stated earlier than the sport. “You’ll be able to’t go, that is precisely how you need to really feel and when. Everyone’s received to have their area a bit bit. You’ve received to allow them to have that.

“There was virtually a interval of mourning that it’s important to recover from.”

The Braves, whose 73-41 report is the very best in baseball, rang up six runs — 5 earned — in 5 ¹/₃ innings towards Tylor Megill, who most likely was a bit bit higher than he was throughout his interlude at Triple-A Syracuse, the place the 28-year-old righty had a 8.67 ERA in six begins. His future within the group is probably going on the road over these subsequent seven weeks.

So it is going to be value monitoring his progress. The identical goes for Mark Vientos, who had two hits and dealt with himself fairly properly at third-base. The at-bats for youths equivalent to Francisco Alvarez can be necessary.

It’s onerous to know, although, what worth there may be in giving Daniel Vogelbach even a single extra at-bat following the 30-year-old’s 0-for-5 during which he left seven males on base and struck out 4 instances, the ultimate one ending the sport.

Vogelbach, in some way the lone survivor from basic supervisor Billy Eppler’s failed 2022 deadline dealings, was jeered loudly after his fourth strikeout signaled the ultimate out of the competition. He’s slashing .214/.313/.348 with seven dwelling runs and a .661 OPS. His numbers have gotten worse because the All-Star break.

Wouldn’t there be extra worth find a youthful man — perhaps a prospect — to take Vogelbach’s at-bats the remainder of the best way?

These are the Mets, nonetheless with 47 video games to go and 28 at dwelling.

And people are the Braves.

One is Ginsberg.

The opposite, Don Draper.