What's at stake in critical Mets-Braves series?

The Mets and Braves will face off in a critical series this weekend that will go a long way toward determining the National League East winner. While the league made contingency plans in the event Hurricane Ian disrupted the series, the forecast has cleared and we will see Jacob deGrom face Max Fried in a battle of aces on Friday night. 

A walk-off Mets win and a Braves loss on Wednesday night made this series even more important for the Braves. Now, if New York takes two out of three from the Braves, Atlanta would have to sweep their final series of the season and hope the Mets get swept if they wanted to win the division. 

Given how unlikely that scenario is, a Mets series win essentially puts the division away. A Mets sweep would formally clinch the division. 

If the Braves win two out of three, the Mets would still lead the division, but only via tiebreaker. That means New York would have no margin for error in their season-ending series against the Nationals. 

A Braves sweep would throw the division firmly into Atlanta control. Not only would the Braves lead by a game, but they would also then hold the tiebreaker and force the Mets to have to make up two games in three days. 

The NL East winner will be the No. 2 seed in the National League and earn a first-round bye to the NLDS. The second-place finisher would be the NL's No. 4 seed and host a best-of-three series against the No. 5 seed in the wild card round. The winner of that series would then have to face the Dodgers in the NLDS.

A wild card series might be especially damaging to the Mets, who wouldn't be able to get additional rest for deGrom or Max Scherzer. Both aces have spent time on the injured list this season. 

Only one thing is guaranteed: Both of these teams will open the postseason at home. The Mets and Braves would just rather it be in two weeks, rather than next Friday.