The Morning Meeting: NL East Pitching Was Dominant on Tuesday

The National League East saw some amazing pitching performances, coming close to a clean sweep

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Ranger Suárez celebrates with teammates after throwing a complete game shutout against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night in Citizens Bank Park. / Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

Great Tuesday in the NL East - The division went four for five, and the Miami Marlins weren’t the ones that let us down! The Philadelphia Phillies got a dominant complete game outing for a starter, the Atlanta Braves exploded in the 9th inning again, and the New York Mets continued their hot streak. 

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 17th)
Braves - 11-5 (.688), -- GB, +28 run diff
Phillies - 10-8 (.556), 2.0 GB, -7 run diff
Mets - 9-8 (.529), 2.5 GB, +6 run diff
Nationals - 7-10 (.412), 4.5 GB, -16 run diff
Marlins - 4-14 (.222), 8.0 GB, -33 run diff

Don’t look now, but the New York Mets are a wagon? They’ve won nine of the last twelve games, and against quality teams - they took two out of three against Atlanta, Cincinnati, Kansas City (2nd place in the AL Central), and Pittsburgh (1st in the NL Central). 

Game recaps from Tuesday

Atlanta Braves 

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Braves used a big ninth inning to put away the Houston Astros. Orlando Arcia launched a home run and picked up a 2nd RBI later to provide all the pre-9th inning runs, while Ronald Acuña Jr scared everyone on a 2nd-inning diving catch attempt, coming up limping after taking the ball straight to the knee. (He’d stay in the game and finish it without incident). 

Free agent signee Reynaldo López continues to impress, throwing six scoreless innings and lowering his season ERA to just 0.50. It wasn’t the most impressive pitching line of the night, however... 

Philadelphia Phillies 

...Because Philadelphia got a complete game shutout for Ranger Suárez in this one. Throwing 112 pitches (79 for strikes), Suárez allowed seven hits and one walk, striking out eight for the complete game victory, his third win of the year. His season ERA is now down to 1.73 and it’s increasingly likely that Philadelphia, not Atlanta, Los Angeles or Arizona, is going to have MLB’s best rotation this season. 

J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper both his two-run homers in this one, with Hardper finishing with three RBIs. Trea Turner continues to be hot, picking up two more hits (and scoring twice) to get his average up to a team-leading .310.   

Miami Marlins

The Marlins successfully held a lead late, as they stymied the Giants bats to win 6-3 for only their 4th win of the season. Ryan Weathers followed Edward Cabrera’s big night on Monday (IP, 5H, 1R, 10Ks) with one of his own, striking out ten batters himself before leaving with a hand cramp. Cabrera and Weathers are the first pair of Miami starters to record double-digit strikeouts in back-to-back games since Braxton Garrett and Sandy Alcantara did it in July of 2022. 

Luis Arraez continues to rebuild his statline from the poor start to the season, picking up two more hits, a run, and two RBIs, putting him at a team-leading .292 average through eighteen games. Tanner Scott and Calvin Faucher combined for the final 2.2 innings with only one hit allowed, although Scott did walk two batters in the 9th to make it dramatic. 

New York Mets

The Mets used two 7th-inning doubles and a balk to put up three runs on the Pirates bullpen and held on to win 3-1. 

Pete Alonso was technically the offensive star, going 2-4 with a run scored, but the team continues to win despite the offense. The Mets picked up only four hits, with only one across the first five innings against electric Pittsburgh rookie Jared Jones. 

Washington Nationals

The Nationals were introduced to the Mookie Betts experience in this one, as LA’s leadoff man and shortstop went 5-5 with two runs and two RBIs in the Dodgers 6-2 win last night. 

Patrick Corbin gave up five of those six runs, doing it on nine hits and four walks in his 6.1 innings. Jesse Winker continues his resurgent year, going 2-3 from the DH spot with a double, a homer, two RBIs, and a run scored. 

MVP's for Tuesday

Hitter: Philly’s Bryce Harper - 2-4, HR, R, 3 RBIs
Pitcher: Philly’s Ranger Suárez - 9IP, 7H, 0R, 1BB to 8 Ks. 

Bad luck for both Ryan Weathers and Reynaldo López, who normally would have both been shoe-ins for this award. 

Who's playing today?

Full slate of games today as several series will get decided (all times Eastern): 

Miami (Rogers) vs SFG (Winn) - 12:10 PM
New York (Severino) vs PIT (Falter) - 1:10 PM ET
Atlanta (Fried) @ HOU (France) - 2:10 PM ET
Washington (Irvin) @ LAD (TBD) - 30:10 PM ET
Philly (Sánchez) vs COL (Feltner) - 6:40 PM ET

Enjoy the games, everyone.