Braves Have Beautiful Opportunity to Send Mets Crashing Back Down to Earth

The New York Mets have been riding some wave. After falling to an abysmal 46-55 record on July 24, they've since gone 15-3 and are on the cusp of grabbing a Wild Card spot.

But on Tuesday, they lost the first game of their crucial series against the NL East rival Braves, and Atlanta now has the chance to send the Mets crashing back down to Earth.

Not to slight the miracle run that the Mets have been on, but the opponents they've faced have been less than impressive. 13 of their 15 wins during that stretch have come against teams with sub-.500 records, and they only barely squeaked by the Washington Nationals during their series, winning two of three games, both by one run. The Braves are the best team New York will have faced during their stretch run.

The Braves took the first game of their three-game set on Tuesday 5-3, and they did it with authority. They got after Zack Wheeler early, tagging him for five runs and 12 hits in the first five innings of play. Freddie Freeman, Josh Donaldson and Ronald Acuña Jr. all put up multi-hit performances as Atlanta cruised to victory.

Now they have Dallas Keuchel and Julio Teheran starting the final two games of the series, so the Mets will have their work cut out for them.

It's the perfect setup for the Braves to sweep the Mets right off the field and back into the doldrums of subpar play. They can easily prove that the Mets can't hang with the best, and that their postseason dreams were nothing more than just that.