Two games into this intriguing series the Mets and the Braves have swapped 4-1 decisions, and so heading into Wednesday’s rubber game they are exactly where they started: a game and a half apart, neck-and-neck, and that feels like it’s exactly as it should be.
The Braves prevailed Tuesday because David Peterson’s final pitch was the worst of the 105 he used to mostly muffle the Braves’ potent bats before Matt Olson made No. 105 disappear over the center-field wall, and because Seth Lugo continues to scuffle. The Mets’ depleted lineup could muster only one run. That’s not going to cut it most nights against the Braves (or anyone else).
These have been two tight, taut, fascinating games, and we can expect more of the same the rest of the way. Not only will the Mets and Braves play 13 more games from here, they seem as evenly matched as they’ve been in years, especially when the Mets aren’t missing Jeff McNeil (paternity leave), Starling Marte (strained groin) and Jacob deGrom (shoulder). That’s two present All-Stars and one perennial one, for those keeping score.
It is enough to wonder if we aren’t seeing the birth of a rivalry.
The Mets and Braves have shared the NL East since 1994, and they’ve had a couple of interesting Septembers, and met once in October — 1999, a six-game NLCS that ended with a walk-off walk by Kenny Rogers that left Bobby Valentine screaming in agony right alongside a chorus of Mets fans.

That has been the exception, though.
The rule has generally been this: the Braves have owned the East, and as a result have owned the Mets. They’ve won 16 division titles since 1995; the Mets have won two. The Braves have had extended periods of excellence while the Mets have settled for fleeting spasms of prosperity.
That should be different now. The Braves have a seemingly endless supply of young talent; the Mets have Steve Cohen’s checkbook. Those two things ought to keep both teams eye-to-eye for the rest of this season and beyond. It could create a rivalry — a true, back-and-forth, let’s-take-the-gloves-off-because-anything-can-happen-at-any-time rivalry — which is something the Mets haven’t had, in truth, in over 35 years.
Back then it was the Cardinals, and those Cardinals-Mets games between 1985 and 1988 were something to behold. The Cardinals and the Mets detested each other. The Cards didn’t care for the curtain calls and the showboating the Mets of that era specialized in. And it used to drive the Mets bananas to hear the paeans and poetry written about “The Cardinal Way.”
So every one of the series they played in those years was supercharged. And, more important, either team could — and did — win. The Cards outlasted the Mets in classic pennant races in 1985 and ’87; the Mets KO’d St. Louis early in 1986 and ’88. They were forever in each others’ faces — and spaces. And it was a blast to watch.
Since? There was a time when it seemed like Mets/Phillies could become something, but after the Mets’ epic collapse in 2007 that never really got off the ground. The Mets and Braves have had some memorable moments, just not enough of them. Mostly the Braves have been the hammer. Mostly the Mets have been the nail.
That should be different this time around, and so far this season it feels different, feels like equals squaring off, feels like the Mets trying to dethrone the Braves, feels like the Braves recognize the Mets as their biggest impediment to winning the East again. Each team has won three of the six games they’ve played. Back in May, the Braves were scuffling but still managed a four-game split.
Now the Braves are piping hot, the Mets trying to keep their heads above water. The Mets won 4-1 on Monday because Max Scherzer wasn’t going to let that proceed any other way. The Braves won 4-1 on the strength of two swings of the bat. Wednesday won’t settle anything. But both teams would sure like to make a statement that’ll have staying power until they see each other again for a five-game series at Citi Field the first week in August.
The kind of calling cards rivals leave for each other.
Scherzer had called Monday night a “measuring-stick” game, and it is the Mets who need to do the measuring because it’s the Braves who won the Commissioner’s Trophy last fall. But you can tell, watching the Braves, they want to send a message, too. They want to remind the Mets who the champs are. It’s not as heated as Mets/Cardinals in the ’80s, no. But a rivalry has to walk before it can run.
Has to be born before it can fester.