The Week Ahead for Atlanta: Another divisional gauntlet begins for the Braves

Ever since the All-Star break ended, the Braves have faced off against AL West, NL West and AL East opposition. I hope y’all enjoyed the grand tour because it’s over now and the Braves will be staying in the NL East for the next few weeks. 13 of the next 16 games the Braves will play are going to be against NL East opposition and the other three games will be against AL East opposition in the form of the New York Yankees. Needless to say, there won’t be many late nights around here — unless there are rain delays. Don’t come at me for jinxing it either, it’s summer in the South.

Anyways, the Braves are now set to get well acquainted with their usual divisional foes starting this week. Atlanta’s current road trip will end in New York with a three-game series against the Mets while they’ll be returning home to begin a four-game set on Thursday with the Washington Nationals. We know the usual pratfalls when it comes to dealing with these two particular ballclubs but let’s go over them once more in order to get a better idea of what lies ahead for Atlanta this week.

July 27-29: New York Mets

Current Record: 44-62 Projected Record (via FanGraphs): 74-88

Well, at least the last time the Braves saw the Mets, they didn’t have too much trouble scoring. The Braves scored 34 runs in four games against New York when they locked horns in Cobb County. That was truly a sight for sore eyes considering how bad the offense had been during the month of June. Still, it was certainly a sign of how things were going for the Braves at that point that they somehow found a way to split that four-game series after the Mets snatched a couple of one-run wins to salvage it.

Juan Soto was a complete and total nightmare for Atlanta to deal with so far this season. In the seven games that they’ve played against the Mets, Soto has racked up five multi-hit games and 12 hits in total, with three of them being homers and 10 RBI to boot. Needless to say, Soto’s absence during this series due to a calf injury will be felt as he’s been one of the main factors keeping New York competitive with Atlanta during this season series so far.

That doesn’t mean that this’ll be smooth sailing for Atlanta’s pitching staff, though. Bo Bichette is still healthy and he’s been just as much a of a nightmare for the Braves to deal with as Soto has been. Bichette has had six multi-hit games against the Braves so far this season with 14 hits in total! He’s also had 10 RBI against the Braves so far as well. New York has scored 36 runs against Atlanta so far and 20 of those RBI have come from two players alone. Good grief. Bichette hasn’t done much since terrorizing the Braves (he hasn’t even homered since June 23) but it would not be shocking if he just suddenly found his plate production again.

So that’s the ballgame, right? Atlanta doesn’t have to deal with Juan Soto and Bo Bichette is the clear danger man here, right? Not exactly. Both Francisco Alvarez and Jared Young have been hot since running into the Braves earlier this month and Alvarez’s performances have apparently resulted in him being “shopped around” by the Mets, so there’s that. Francisco Lindor has been pretty consistent at the plate recently and New York’s been getting some solid contributions from A.J. Ewing lately as well. The Mets can do some damage at the plate on their day, as they’ve proven against the Braves a few times already and they’re coming into this series having tagged the Dodgers for eight runs in a win just yesterday.

The Braves will have to continue to hit the ball well, themselves, if they’re going to actually take care of business against New York for once. Zac Thornton has gotten his big league career off to a fine start so Monday could very well be a challenging situation for Atlanta’s lineup to deal with. With that being said, Atlanta didn’t have too many problems against Tuesday’s starter Christian Scott the last time they saw him and while a lot of Sean Manaea’s poor performance could be contributed to his defense letting him down, Wednesday’s starter certainly hasn’t been imposing, either. The Braves should be able to continue having success against this pitching staff.

This has once again been another closely-fought season series between these two teams and honestly, it wouldn’t be shocking if there was even more drama this time around.

Monday, July 27 at 7:10 p.m ET (BravesVision)
Tuesday, July 28 at 7:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)
Wednesday, July 29 at 1:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)

July 30-August 2: Washington Nationals

Current Record: 54-52 Projected Record: 80-82

Guess who has the top wRC+ in all of baseball since May 25? Yep, these guys. Guess who’s tied for the lead in wRC+ in all of baseball for the entire season so far? Yep, these guys again.

James Wood, Luis García Jr., CJ Abrams, Curtis Mead, Nasim Nuñez and Keibert Ruiz have all been performing at either well above-average or simply above-average levels since the last time the Braves faced them. Washington’s offense has been clicking all season and they haven’t really missed a beat at the plate. No matter who the Braves have pitching against these guys, there’s a very good chance that a slugfest could break out at any given moment against this crew. Plain and simple, they’ve been hitting at an elite level all season and at this point in the season, they are completely legit.

It’s also probably easy to guess why this team is still only two games over .500 and projected to finish under .500 despite having a genuinely elite offense. Their pitching is absolutely terrible — that was the case when the Braves played them earlier on this season and it continues to be the case as we get deeper into the season. The only National League pitching staff with an ERA- higher than Washington’s 113 mark is Colorado — and it’s actually pretty close since the Rockies are carrying an ERA- of 115. The Nationals are also carrying the second-worst FIP- in the National League at 111 (the Cubs are actually last at 113). It hasn’t gotten better for Washington since the last time Atlanta saw them, as the Nats have had a 113 ERA- and a 110 FIP- since May 25. This is just a bad pitching staff.

I think that the best way to sum up the 2026 Washington Nationals is a two-game span during their series a couple of weeks ago on the road in Sacramento. In the series opener, the Nats absolutely demolished the A’s in a 23-4 destruction. The very next day, the Nationals got whacked 15-1.

That is this team in a nutshell — one day, they could take you out behind the woodshed for a beatdown and the next day, they could be the ones getting taken out behind the woodshed for a beatdown, themselves. Maybe things will get better for the Nationals once they get Connelly Early back from injury after acquiring him from the Red Sox but for now, Atlanta’s lineup is going to have to match Washington swing-for-swing and they’ll be fully capable of it if the Nationals’ pitching staff performs as advertised.

Thursday, July 30 at 7:15 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Friday, July 31 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Saturday, August 1 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Sunday, August 2 at 1:35 p.m. ET (BravesVision)