The Morning Meeting: ALMOST a Clean Sweep for the NL East on Monday

The National League East used some great pitching performances to win four of their five games

Great Monday in the NL East - Offense seemed to be at a premium, but the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets both exploded in the ninth innings of their games, while the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals won close matchups. 

Let's look at what each team did yesterday, where they currently stand in the division as of this morning, and what today's game has in store. It's The Morning Meeting!

Who is winning the National League East right now?

(divisional standings as of April 16th)
Braves - 10-5 (.667), -- GB, +24 run diff
Phillies - 9-8 (.529), 2.0 GB, -12 run diff
Mets - 8-8 (.500), 2.5 GB, +4 run diff
Nationals - 7-9 (.438), 3.5 GB, -12 run diff
Marlins - 3-14 (.176), 8.0 GB, -36 run diff

Also a clean sweep for the division, but Miami lost last night. There’s a big cluster in the standings, with the middle three teams all within one game of a .500 record. Going to be interesting whenever two of them meet the other, as there could be significant movement in these standings after those series conclude. 

Game recaps from Monday

Atlanta Braves 

The Braves used a big ninth inning off of $95M closer Josh Hader to put away the Houston Astros and knock him out for the rest of the series. Atlanta’s got both the rotation and the bullpen edge going forward, and with the way this Houston offense has struggled to score runs this season (-18 run differential through 18 games), the Braves should be favored to take the series here. 

Callup Darius Vines came one out away from completing five innings with just one run allowed, while Atlanta’s offense linked up for eleven hits. Ronald Acuña Jr picked up two of those hits, the fourth time in the last six games he’s had multiple hits in a game. While he doesn’t yet have a homer on the season, he’s got seven stolen bases, including six in that six-game stretch, and it feels like just a matter of time for the reigning NL MVP. 

Philadelphia Phillies 

Philly walked off the Colorado Rockies in extras, 2-1, thanks to a Cristian Pache single to right field. Only six hits total for Philly off of Colorado pitching, although they only struck out four times, so the ratios are okay. 

Biggest takeaway here was a return to form for Aaron Nola, who went 7.1 innings with one run allowed on four hits, walking one and striking out nine. While he threw more sinkers than four-seam fastballs, his velo was up on both compared to his previous outings, back to his standard norms. 

Miami Marlins

The Fish got an early lead but couldn’t hold it as the San Francisco Giants scored the final four runs of the game to win 4-3 in Miami. Luis Arraez looked like a two-time batting champ in this one., going three for four and scoring a run, while the Marlins only struck out five times as a team (two by yesterday’s call-up Otto Lopez, inserted at third base in place of an injured Jake Burger, who went on the IL). 

Similar to Philly’s game, the biggest takeaway here was the successful return of Edward Cabrera. Making his first start of the season after shoulder soreness disrupted his Grapefruit League, Cabrera went six innings with only one run on five hits, walking one and striking out ten. But yet again, the bullpen blew a lead, with George Soriano taking the loss after allowing three runs in just 2/3rds of an inning. 

New York Mets

What a weird night for the Mets on the mound - starter Adrian Houser and three relievers combined to hold Pittsburgh to three runs on three hits, striking out ten Pirates, although they did allow seven walks that kept Pittsburgh hanging around for far longer than they should have. 

Signs of life for Francisco Lindor, though, who went 2-4 with a walk and a run scored, raising his season average to .152. While there are still some stragglers on offense - Brandon Nimmo’s batting only .217, while Jeff McNeil is sitting at a .204 mark - Lindor’s inability to produce any offense has been the biggest concern for this team in 2024, given the seven years at $34.1M remaining on his contract. 

Washington Nationals

The Nationals lost a series to the Oakland A’s, so it makes perfect sense that not only would they head to LA and knock off the Dodgers 6-4 in game one, but that they’d do it by tagging Tyler Glasnow for six runs on eight hits (including two homers) in just five innings, right? That’s baseball! 

Mitchell Parker, who is definitely a real person who was called up for his MLB debut yesterday and not a name I just made up, outdueled Glasnow, going five innings with just two runs allowed on four hits, walking none and striking out four batters, including Shohei Ohtani once and Mookie Betts twice. 

MVP's for Monday

Hitter: Atlanta’s Austin Riley - 3-5, 2B, RBI
Pitcher: Miami’s Edward Cabrera - 6IP, 5H, 1R, 1BB to 10Ks 

Who's playing today?

Full slate of games today, although some interesting start times: 

Philly (Suárez) vs COL (gomber) - 6:40 PM ET
Miami (Weathers) vs SFG (Hicks) - 6:40 PM ET
New York (Quintana) vs PIT (Jones) - 7:10 PM ET
Atlanta (López) @ HOU (Brown) - 8:10 PM ET
Washington (Corbin) @ LAD (TBD) - 10:10 PM ET

Enjoy the games, everyone.