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The 3 best Mets wins against the Braves in team history

The three best wins the Mets mustered against the rival Braves.

By Tim Boyle |
New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza (2nd R) is congr
New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza (2nd R) is congr / MATT CAMPBELL/GettyImages
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It’s a strange history between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. They weren’t actually division rivals until 1995 when realignment and the introduction of the wild card came to Major League Baseball. The Braves, geographically located in a state bordering the Atlantic Ocean, were in the NL West. Their previous location in Milwaukee was the reason for it. No one ever got around to a readjustment much like how the Dallas Cowboys remain in the NFC East. Remember when the Arizona Cardinals were briefly there, too?

In any case, the Mets and Braves have clashed plenty. When it comes to winning, these are the three best.

Best Mets win: 10-run comeback in 2000

The best regular season win for the Mets against the Braves happened on June 30, 2000. The Braves tallied 3 runs in the top half of the eighth inning to push themselves to an 8-1 lead over New York. The Mets would not go away quietly.

A leadoff single by Derek Bell got things started. However, only a few batters later, a seemingly meaningless groundout off the bat of Robin Ventura plated a run but only cut the lead to 8-2. It was the second out of the inning and nothing more than an RBI for the Mets third baseman. Or was it?

With two outs, Todd Zeile singled in another run. Then Jay Payton kept the inning going with a hit of his own. The Braves turned to reliever Kerry Ligtenberg for some assistance. He walked Benny Agbayani to load the bases.

Then down came the Braves. Ligtenberg walked two more batters before he was replaced by Terry Mulholland who, as you can guess, walked the first batter he faced. An Edgardo Alfonzo single would plate two more then came the most memorable moment of all.

The game was now tied 8-8 with Mike Piazza at the plate. A three-run bomb pushed the Mets into the lead and they wouldn’t look back. The ten run inning on 6 hits and an error became arguably one of the greatest Mets regular season wins of all-time.

Best Mets win: The grand slam single game

When a game has a name, you know there is enough lore there for it to make some best lists. The grand slam single is one of those labels for a game/moment that continues to resonate with fans.

On October 17, 1999, the Mets trailed the Braves 3 games to 1 in the NLCS. Backed up against the rooms at Shea Stadium, the Mets were fighting from behind all series long. Dropping the first three games of the series, they would need a miracle to win the best of 5. A victory in Game 4 kept them alive. The even more outstanding victory in Game 5 would be the stuff of legends.

In the 15th inning of what would turn out to be a 5 hour and 46 minute game, Keith Lockhart would knock a triple to give the Braves a 3-2 lead in the top half of the inning. The Mets would get their shot in the bottom half of the inning and a Shawon Dunston single followed by a stolen base was the right way to get it started. Todd Pratt would later draw a bases loaded walk to tie the game before Robin Ventura stepped up to the plate to give this game its signature name.

Ventura took Braves pitcher Kevin McGlinchy deep for what should’ve been a home run. But because Ventura didn’t even make it to second base before his teammates locked their arms around him in celebration, the play was officially ruled a single with just one run scoring. It was all the Mets needed, though. For one more night, they were alive.

Best Mets wins: 1969 NLCS

Long before the Mets and Braves were bitter rivals, they would face off in the first ever National League Championship Series. Taking place in 1969, the Mets represented the East with the Braves from the West. Three games in three days with the first two in Atlanta would result in the first ever postseason sweep in Mets history.

Tom Seaver got the win in Game 1 with the Mets offense helping him out a ton. The 9-5 win had little drama. The story wasn’t much different a day later in Game 2 when the Mets took the game 11-6. Tug McGraw would have one of his patented 3-inning saves.

The finale wasn’t much different. Despite two runs for the Braves in the first, the Mets would battle back in the middle of the game to take the lead. A Wayne Garrett dinger in the bottom of the fifth helped them retake the lead with Ken Boswell later adding an RBI single to tack on some insurance. They’d score another run and complete the sweep with this 7-4 win.

Sometimes lost to time, the 1969 NLCS win over the Braves might get overlooked for a couple of reasons. For one, the Mets were the better regular season team with 100 wins versus the 93 by Atlanta. Still, up against a lineup featuring Hank Aaron, Rico Carty, and Orlando Cepeda in the middle, it’s difficult to dismiss this as a favorite handling their business.

There’s no legendary moment from this series like there was from the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. Nevertheless, if you’re going to talk about the best Mets wins against the Braves, you need to discuss the playoff series they won.

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