Austin Riley’s comments may have lit a fire among Mets in the NL East race

Austin Riley warned the Mets that the Braves were coming for them, but New York was apparently only motivated by those comments.

On July 23rd Atlanta Braves MVP nominee and All-Star third baseman Austin Riley hit a home run to win the club and he issued a caution to the NL East leader New York Mets. Simply put, Riley said: “We’re coming for her.”

There was every reason for that at the time. New York was a bit mediocre while Atlanta moved up the standings to try and retake the divisional crown.

However, it seems that what Riley had to say in that moment might have been the bulletin board material the Mets needed to spark their second half of the regular season.

Braves: Austin Riley’s warning may have only motivated Mets more

As one Reddit user noted, after the Mets won both games in a doubleheader Saturday against the Braves, New York went 11-2 and extended its NL East lead to 5.5 games over Atlanta since Riley made his statement had given up.

There is some context to this situation, it should be said. Before dropping three of four games to New York in their current five-game streak, which ends Sunday, the Braves were playing extremely good baseball themselves. But at the same time, the Mets have received a massive boost over the past month with the return of their two aces, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer.

And to be sure, the Braves are going nowhere in this race. Yes, the widened gap makes Sunday’s series finale and upcoming future matchups this season with New York exponentially more important, but it’s not a race they’re far from coming out of.

That being said, Riley has seemingly gotten the Mets to continue on their current run, which is probably the polar opposite of what he wanted in the situation.