This One Matters: Braves and Mets Square Off This Weekend

The Atlanta Braves are three games away from a comfortable lead atop the NL East. With those pesky Mets lurking behind us at just three games back, nothing would feel better than a series win.

Every game of this series will be a battle of the aces, starting with the first game, when Tommy Hanson and R.A. "The Knuckler" Dickey duel it out on the mound. On Saturday night, it's the All-Star Tim Hudson against Mike Pelfrey, and Sunday afternoon, we see our arch nemesis Johan Santana against Derek "The See-Saw" Lowe.

Tommy Hanson was exceptional in his last start against the Marlins after a few previous bad starts. He struck out eight fish and only allowed four hits and no runs, and he will hopefully continue that path of success tonight. It's obvious we can all feel safe with Tim Hudson on the mound, so really the only question mark this weekend will be Lowe vs. Santana. Lowe gets a lot of wins every season, but this season, we don't know what to expect from him. Will his sinker sink and is he going to hang it letter-high so the Mets batters can tee-off against him, or will he fool all of them with good location and great change of speed? There is really no way of knowing with D-Lowe.

Analysts and sportswriters just seem to blow off the Braves when asked about them, because they already have that poisonous mindset that the Phillies will always be the king of the NL East and the Braves will always come up short. Well, wake up ESPN, because the season is over the half-way mark, and the Bravos could go to Anaheim with a six game lead in the East.

Let's Go Braves.