MLB’s regular season is a 162-game marathon that takes six months to complete. Sometimes, a divisional race is over well before the dog days of summer hit. Other times, every single game on the schedule is needed to determine a winner. If we had to guess, the National League East race will probably drag into September between the Mets, Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies.
How things start isn’t as important as how they finish. However, no team wants to start the year like the Phillies. New York and the Miami Marlins are three games into the new year, while Atlanta, Philadelphia, and the Washington Nationals have each played two.