here we go again.
Memories of past epic battles between the Mets and Braves were resurrected with both teams' seasons hanging in the balance entering a three-game series starting Tuesday in Atlanta. The Mets (87-69) entered Monday tied with the Diamondbacks for second place in the wild-card division, while the Braves are two games behind both teams for the final National League playoff spot.
As both teams prepare to resume their all-but-determined rivalry, let's take a look back at some of the most notable late-season and playoff matchups between the NL East rivals.
1969 National League Champions
Prior to the rivalry's most prominent era in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Mets and Braves first met in the playoffs in the 1969 National League Championship Series, which was the first playoff series in the Mets' eight-year history and the year the NLCS was first implemented.
The Mets swept the Braves, 3-0, and then went on to beat the Orioles in five games to win their first World Series.
Cy Young Award winner Tom Seaver won Game 1, and a kid named Nolan Ryan won the deciding Game 3.
The collapse of 1998
The Mets closed out the 1998 regular season with a three-game series in Atlanta. The Braves had long been locked in first place in the NL East, and after two straight losses to the woeful Expos, the Mets were in control of their own destiny in the race for the lone Wild Card spot, finishing 88-71. The Cubs were also 88-71, and the Giants were 87-72.
But the Mets were soundly defeated, with Rick Reed getting crushed in Game 1, Tom Glavine and the Braves' relief pitchers shutting out the Mets in Game 2, and Greg Maddux holding the Mets in check in Game 3, with Armando Reynoso giving up five runs in the second inning before being taken out.
The Cubs lost two of three games in Houston, but the Giants won two of three games in Colorado, giving Chicago the wild-card tiebreaker and narrowly eliminating the Mets.
1999 National League Championship Game
The rivals played two big series in late September, the first of which was for the division title, with the Braves trailing by one game going into a three-game series in Atlanta starting on September 21 and the Mets losing 13–6.
The Mets then got swept in Philadelphia, and the Braves went to Montreal and swept the Expos to clinch the NL East title, before meeting again at Shea Stadium in the penultimate series of the season.
After losing two of three games to the Braves at home, the Mets swept the Pirates and then beat the Reds in the wild-card tiebreaker to advance to the postseason.
In the NLDS, the Mets defeated the Diamondbacks in four games, and the Braves defeated the Astros in four games to advance to the NLCS.
The Braves jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to the efforts of their star pitching staff, but in Game 4, John Olerud homered in the sixth inning and then hit a two-run game-winning single in the eighth inning after a John Rocker double to save the Braves from the humiliation of being shutout.
Robin Ventura's famous grand slam single in the top of the 15th gave the Mets the victory in Game 5.
In a hard-fought Game 6, the Braves led 5-0 in the first inning and 7-3 in the sixth, but the Mets rallied to score four runs in the seventh on a game-tying home run by Mike Piazza.
Todd Pratt's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th was answered by Ozzie Guillen's game-tying single.
Then Kenny Rogers walked Andruw Jones for a walk-off home run in the 11th inning.
2000
For the second straight year, the rival teams met twice in late September for the division title. Trailing by three games on September 18 after a three-game series in Atlanta, the Mets lost two of the three games, including a 12-4 blowout loss, as Glendon Rush and the Mets' relief corps collapsed.
The Braves then clinched the division title by winning a tiebreaker against the Mets, who advanced to the playoffs as wild cards, in the first game of a three-game series at Shea Stadium on September 27.
The Mets defeated the top-seeded Giants in four games in the National League Championship Series, while the Braves were swept by the Cardinals. The Mets defeated St. Louis in five games in the National League Championship Series to advance to the Subway Series World Series against the Yankees.
2001
The Mets faced an uphill battle for the NL East title, trailing the Braves and Phillies, but in a late September series against the Braves at Shea Stadium, they beat Atlanta by 5.5 games and won two of three games.
The team then went into the penultimate series of the season in Atlanta trailing by three games and dropped two of the three games.
The Mets then lost four of their final six games to fall six games behind the Braves, 82-80.
2022
The Mets were leading the National League East by 10.5 games and appeared to be in the lead, but after going 5-6 against the Nationals, Pirates, Marlins and Cubs in early September, their three-game lead over the Braves narrowed to just 0.5 games behind them.
They still held a one-game lead in the three-game series with two games remaining in Atlanta and needed one more win to secure the crucial head-to-head tiebreaker.
Instead, the Braves, who finished the season 21-10, outlasted Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Chris Bassitt to take the series and take a two-game lead.
Both teams won 101 games in a row, with the Braves winning the division in a tiebreaker, while the Mets lost to the Padres in three games in the Wild Card Series, becoming the first team with at least 100 wins to fail to reach the National League Championship Series.
