NEW YORK — Hard as it must be for the Citi Field faithful to accept the fact the Mets won 101 games, the second-most wins in their history, and still wound up as a wild card, there is this dose of hard reality: The Braves were simply a better team.
Interestingly, when all the baseball pundits were making their World Series predictions both before the season and during it, they never mentioned the Braves, even though they are the defending world champions. If not the Dodgers representing the National League, they said, then definitely the Mets on the strength of Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, their two top-of-the-rotation “infallibles.”
Perhaps part of the reason for the pundits’ dismissal of the Braves is their recent habit of playing possum much of the season before finally making their move come nitty-gritty time. As Buck Showalter’s Mets were taking control of the NL East from Day 1 this year, the Braves did not get over .500 until June 5 and trailed the Mets by seven games on Aug. 10. And a year ago, they were under .500 as late as Aug. 4.
