Here we go again.
Memories of mammoth Mets-Braves clashes from yesteryear are resurfacing as each team’s season hangs in the balance entering their enormous three-game series in Atlanta starting Tuesday, as the Mets (87-69) began Monday tied with the Diamondbacks for the second wild-card spot while the Braves trailed both teams by two games for the final NL playoff spot.
As the two teams prepare to renew their rivalry with everything on the line, here’s a look at the history of major late-season and playoff duels between the NL East foes.
1969 NLCS
Predating the rivalry’s most notable era in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Mets and Braves’ first playoff matchup came in the 1969 NLCS, the first playoff series in the Mets’ eight-year history at that point and the first year the league championship series were instituted.
The Mets swept the Braves 3-0 en route to defeating the Orioles in five games to win their first World Series.
Cy Young winner Tom Seaver earned the win in Game 1, and some kid named Nolan Ryan earned the win in the Game 3 clincher.
1998 collapse
The Mets ended the 1998 regular season with a three-game series in Atlanta, with the Braves having long locked up the NL East and the Mets controlling their own destiny in the race for the lone wild-card spot at 88-71, coming off two straight losses to the woeful Expos. The Cubs were also 88-71 while the Giants were 87-72.
But the Mets got swept, with Rick Reed getting beat up in the first game, the bats getting shut out by Tom Glavine and the Braves bullpen in Game 2 and Greg Maddux stifling the Mets in Game 3 while Armando Reynoso was chased in the second inning after giving up five runs.
The Cubs lost two of three in Houston while the Giants won two of three at Colorado, setting those two up for a wild-card tiebreaker game Chicago won as the Mets devastatingly missed out.
1999 NLCS
The rivals played two huge series in late September with the division up for grabs entering the first one. The Braves held a one-game lead entering their three-game set in Atlanta starting Sept. 21, and the Mets got swept while getting outscored 13-6.
The Mets then got swept in Philly while the Braves went to Montreal and swept the Expos to clinch the NL East before the two teams met again at Shea Stadium for the penultimate series of the season.
The Mets lost two of three at home to the Braves before sweeping the Pirates and then beating the Reds in a wild-card tiebreaker to make the postseason.
In the NLDS, the Mets beat the Diamondbacks in four games and the Braves beat the Astros in four to set up the NLCS.
The Braves jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind their stud pitching before John Olerud saved them from the indignity of a sweep in Game 4, smacking a home run in the sixth and a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth off John Rocker following a double steal.
Robin Ventura’s famous 15th-inning grand slam single kept the Mets alive to win Game 5.
A wild Game 6 saw the Braves take a 5-0 lead in the first and 7-3 lead in the sixth before the Mets scored four in the seventh, with Mike Piazza hitting a game-tying home run.
Todd Pratt’s sac fly in the 10th was answered by an Ozzie Guillen game-tying single in the bottom half.
Kenny Rogers then issued a walk-off walk to Andruw Jones in the 11th.
2000
For the second straight year, the rivals squared off twice in late September with the division on the line. Trailing by three games entering Sept. 18 for a three-game set in Atlanta, the Mets loss two of three, which included a 12-4 shellacking as Glendon Rusch and the Mets bullpen unraveled.
The Braves then clinched the division by winning the first game of a three-game set at Shea on Sept. 27, having owned a tiebreaker over the Mets, who advanced to the playoffs as the wild card.
The Mets ousted the top-seeded Giants in four games in the NLDS while the Braves were swept by the Cardinals. The Mets beat St. Louis in five games in the NLCS to set up the Subway Series World Series against the Yankees.
2001
The Mets faced an uphill battle for the NL East crown, trailing both the Braves and Phillies, but they were 5.5 games back of Atlanta entering a late September series against the Braves at Shea, and the Mets took two of three.
They then entered a three-game set in Atlanta in the third-to-last series of the season trailing by three games before losing two of three.
The Mets then lost four of their final six games to finish 82-80, six games back of the Braves.
2022
The Mets appeared like they would run away with the NL East, which they led by as many as 10 1/2 games. But they went 5-6 during an early September stretch against the Nationals, Pirates, Marlins and Cubs to see their three-game lead over the Braves trimmed to a half-game.
They still were in the driver’s seat up a game for a penultimate three-game series in Atlanta, needing just one win to secure the critical head-to-head tiebreaker.
Instead, the Braves, who closed the season on a 21-10 run, knocked around Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Chris Bassitt to sweep the series and build a two-game lead.
Both teams would win 101 games and the Braves took the division via the tiebreaker while the Mets went on to lose a three-game wild-card series to the Padres and become the first 100-plus-win team not to make the NLDS.