NEW YORK -- As the Braves swept a doubleheader against the Mets on Saturday at Citi Field, it was again obvious how much has changed for these National League East rivals within a year.

Memories of the battles these teams waged over last season’s final two months faded further into the distance as the Braves claimed a 21-3 victory in the first game and a 6-0 win in the nightcap.

“[There’s] a lot more pleasure [beating the Mets] because they always say they are going to beat us,” Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies said. “That’s all I can say.”

Matt Olson increased his MLB lead with a pair of homers in the opener, and Spencer Strider spent the second game extending the scoreless streak fellow starting pitchers Charlie Morton and Allan Winans had started. By the time the twin bill was over, the Braves had outscored the Mets 34-3 during the first three games of this four-game series.

The 24-run differential in Saturday’s games made the Braves the first team to outscore its opponent by 20-plus runs in a doubleheader since the Rangers outscored the Orioles 39-10 over a pair of games on Aug. 22, 2007.

“It’s just the way these guys are wired,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "These guys never quit.”

The Braves' starting pitchers (Morton, Winans and Strider) have combined to throw 19 scoreless innings in this series. The Mets didn’t even score against Braves backup infielder Nicky Lopez, who highlighted a four-hit game with a homer in the opener and then tossed a scoreless ninth in his second career pitching appearance.

With the starters covering 14 innings and Lopez another, the Braves needed just three innings from their regular relievers on Saturday. This provided a much-needed rest for a relief corps that was taxed when Atlanta’s starters went fewer than five innings four times in a five-game span last week.

The first-place Braves are 23 1/2 games in front of the Mets in the National League East. This certainly wasn’t envisioned when New York constructed a payroll slightly north of $350 million. Nor was this expected after these two teams ended last year’s 162-game regular season with the same record.

But signs of separation became visible around this time last year. Looking back at how the Braves won a fifth straight division crown in 2022, it’s often pointed out that they entered May 10 1/2 games behind the Mets. But maybe more impressive was that Atlanta overcame the 6 1/2-game deficit created on Aug. 7, after New York won four times during a five-game series at Citi Field.

The Braves took three of four in Atlanta a little more than a week later and they have now won 14 of 16 against the Mets going back to Aug. 15, 2022. This includes the final weekend’s three-game sweep that decided the season series, which served as the tiebreaker for the division title.

There won’t be a need for a tiebreaker this year. The Mets are 1-8 in the season series. New York came to Atlanta just three games back in early June. They got swept and exited June 18 1/2 games behind the Braves. Their prolonged struggles led to trading both Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline.

The Braves have been 29 1/2 games better than the Mets going all the way back to Aug. 7, 2022, when they left New York having just lost three of four to a Mets club that seemed to be the better team at the time.

How bad are things now for the Mets? Well, they couldn’t even extend their usual success against Strider, who pitched around four walks and scattered three hits while recording six strikeouts over seven scoreless innings.

This marked just the third time in six starts against the Mets that Strider allowed fewer than four runs. It also marked the first time he completed more than five innings against New York.

While this was an effective outing for Strider, it’s worth noting he has just nine strikeouts over his past two starts. He entered Monday’s start in Pittsburgh having tallied at least nine strikeouts in 17 of 22 starts this year.

As for Winans, he tallied nine strikeouts over seven scoreless innings. Adding to the significance of his second career start was the fact the Braves selected him in the Minor League portion of the 2021 Rule 5 Draft after the Mets left him unprotected.

“We want games like this to happen every single night,” Albies said. “It’s great to see how we played in these two games.”