The National League East might not be so bad after all.
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman coined it the “toughest” five-team grouping in baseball just before opening day. That triggered laughter and witty responses, and deservingly so after the division had just one team that exceeded 77 wins a year ago.
The Nationals coasted to a first-place finish with 97 wins, a whopping 20 games better than second-place Miami, which went on to dismantle its team in winter. The past several seasons have popularly labeled the East baseball’s worst division.
But Freeman may have the last laugh. The season is ripe, just 15 games through, but the East is shaping up to be substantially tougher than recent years - and unquestionably more competitive.
The Mets are 12-3, including a perfect 6-0 away from Citi Field. The Phillies have regrouped after a messy opening series against the Braves, now sit at 9-6 and winners of three straight series prior to the ongoing games in Atlanta.
Washington entered the year again the heavy favorite, having claimed three of the past four division crowns. They’re a modest 8-9 in the early going, but there’s little reason to panic about the division’s most talented team.
Aside from the emptied-out Marlins, the division doesn’t appear to have an easy out. Each team, at worst, will be a handful.
“The National League East, I think, is the toughest division in baseball, starting pitching-wise and everything around it,” Freeman reiterated Tuesday. “So we’re going to have a tough battle all year with all the teams.”
The Braves have split 3-3 with the Nationals. They’ve played four true dog fights against the Phillies, coming out on top three times. The games involved a five-run rally, extra innings, a 15-2 drubbing that made tempers flair on both sides, and a 2-1 grind-it-out finish Monday.
That’s a shift from 2017, when the Braves defeated the Phillies six times in 19 attempts. Like the Braves, the Phillies are transitioning from rebuild to contention, supplementing young stars with what they hope is the right mix of veterans.
“They’re playing good baseball and we’re playing good baseball,” Freeman said when asked about a potential revival of the Braves-Phillies rivalry. “If we continue to do that, it’s going to be good playing them so many times early on. It’s a big test for both teams. They got the best of us last year so hopefully we can turn the tide around this year.
“Obviously we don’t think about last year when we’re playing this year, it’s a whole different team, while different guys in this clubhouse, so obviously some of the guys who’ve been here know we didn’t have the best success against them, but it’s only been four games. Yeah, we’ve won three of them, but we’ve still got a lot more to go.”
The Braves face the Mets for the first time Thursday in a four-game set. They won’t see the Marlins until May 10, and despite Miami’s hapless status, holding serve against the East’s worst team could be vital to how the race finishes.
Thus far, the Braves have done just that. They’re winning at home and survived arguably their toughest road trip of the year at Colorado, Washington and Chicago, all playoff teams.
They’ve posted a 6-4 record against the Nationals and Phillies, with five of those wins coming at SunTrust Park. They’re averaging 7.14 runs while hitting .283 at home after seven games.
