The two best teams in the National League shared a field this week. Only one left feeling good about it.
Braves vs. Cubs: The NL's Best Head-to-Head
This was the series of the week. Atlanta hosted Chicago in a three-game set that amounted to the closest thing baseball has to a statement series in mid-May.
The Braves came in at 28-13 and rising. The Cubs arrived with the second-best record in the National League, riding one of the more impressive starts in recent franchise memory. Earlier this season, they became the first team since the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to post multiple 10-game winning streaks in the first 40 decisions of a season. When these two teams met, something had to give.
Atlanta won the first two convincingly. In Game 1, the Braves held the Cubs to a season-low one hit, and Austin Riley and Mike Yastrzemski both went deep in a 5-2 win. Game 2 was tighter until the eighth inning, when Yastrzemski stepped in as a pinch hitter and delivered the tiebreaking double. Mauricio Dubon followed with a two-run homer to seal a 4-1 Atlanta victory and push the Cubs to four straight losses.
Game 3 went to Chicago. Ian Happ homered and five Cubs pitchers combined on a 2-0 shutout, snapping the skid and salvaging something from the trip. But the Braves won the series 2-1, improved to 30-13, and made a clear statement: they are the class of the National League right now.
The Cubs will be fine. Winning the finale showed resilience, and their record still puts them among the best teams in baseball. But this week belonged to Atlanta.
Braves: The Best Team in Baseball?
Before this series, the Braves had already nudged the Dodgers out of the top spot in MLB power rankings, their first time at No. 1 in more than three years. After beating the Cubs twice in Atlanta, the conversation is getting louder.
Matt Olson and Drake Baldwin have been two of the offensive engines. Walt Weiss, in his first season as manager, has this team playing with a focus and an edge that was completely absent during last year's 76-86 disappointment. Whatever happened in the offseason worked. Atlanta is 30-13 and does not look like a team that is going to slow down.
Subway Series: Mets Take Two of Three
The Mets beat the Yankees 6-3 on Friday to take the series, winning four of their last five games in the process. David Peterson set the tone with eight strikeouts, and Luke Weaver came on later to work out of trouble when the game started to wobble. Mark Vientos delivered three RBI in the finale and gave the Mets the kind of middle-of-the-order production they needed.
In New York, the Subway Series always carries extra weight regardless of where both teams are in the standings. The Mets took that weight and did something with it this week.
Phillies Quietly Getting Right
Philadelphia has now won four consecutive series. They are not making a lot of noise about it, but the Phillies are trending in the right direction at a time when the National League East is starting to stack up. A team that looked out of sorts a few weeks ago is beginning to look like itself again, and that matters in a division where Atlanta is already setting a brutal pace.
The Reds Are in Freefall
Cincinnati is on an eight-game losing streak and was outscored 60-23 during that stretch. That is not a slump. That is a collapse. The Reds have not just been losing, they have been getting blown out repeatedly, and the margin of defeat tells you this is not a team running into bad luck. Something is genuinely broken right now in Cincinnati, and the path back is not obvious.
One More Note: Manoah Returns
Alek Manoah made his first MLB appearance in 709 days this week, taking the mound for the Angels against his former team, the Blue Jays. He got through a perfect inning in relief. After everything he has been through to get back, that is worth noting.
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