As I sat down to write this column on Wednesday morning, all was right with the world. Overnight the Atlanta Braves had managed to work themselves back to where they belong — in first place in the National League East standings.

With Atlanta’s 10-9 win over Oakland and New York’s loss to Pittsburgh, the Braves and Mets found themselves with identical 85-51 records.

That being said, a lot could have changed between the time I am writing this and when you actually read it in The Meridian Star. The Braves had an afternoon game with Oakland and the Mets had a double-header scheduled with Pittsburgh on Wednesday so it is likely (barring a rain out) that by Thursday morning there was only one team standing atop the NL East.

The Braves surge has been amazing to watch, as well as experience. Following a 10-inning 8-7 road loss to Arizona on May 31 the Braves found themselves at 23-27 on the season. Since that time Brian Snitker’s club has gone 62-24. That’s just stupid good.

Both the Braves and Mets are virtually assured of making the playoffs. Whichever team wins the NL East will likely have a first-round bye in the National League playoffs, although the St. Louis Cardinals have an outside shot of surpassing both teams to earn one of the byes.

But even if Atlanta finishes second to the Mets and hosts one of the first-round best-of-three series you have to like their chances.

The Mets once held a 10-game lead in the East, but quite frankly they have gained a reputation of folding in the clutch late in the season. When New York took four out of five from Atlanta in the Big Apple in early August it looked as though the Mets would pull away and roll to the division title. A week later the Braves took three out of four from the Mets in Atlanta and the race was once again on.

Counting Tuesday’s game with Oakland, the Braves were set to play 17 of their last 26 games on the road, with 10 of the last 13 being played away from Truist Park. Those three home games will be against the New York Mets on the last weekend of the regular season from Sept. 30-Oct.2. The Braves follow that up with a three-game road trip to Miami to close out the regular season.

The Braves have simply gotten better as the year has gone along, despite a myriad of injuries.

The infield is as solid as there is in baseball, even with a :”third-stringer’ in amazing rookie Vaughn Grissom playing second base instead of Ozzie Albies, who may be returning soon.

As odd as it sounds, every time there is an issue with the Braves’s starting pitching rotation, it just seems to get better. They just add depth at every turn.

The Dodgers are great, the Cardinals are the Cardinals riding on a magic carpet alongside a trio of baseball legends, and the Mets truly are loaded. But, I wouldn’t bet against the Braves to make the World Series. I just wouldn’t.

Austin Bishop, AKA The Old Sports Dude, has been covering high school, college, amateur, and professional sports since 1975 and is an ordained Assemblies of God minister. He may be contacted by email at starsportsboss@yahoo.com or by phone at 601-938-2471.