The Atlanta Braves lost or, more accurately, got spanked by the Dodgers in the opening games of the series. Sadly, this isn’t a recent phenomenon.
Watching the games on Monday and Tuesday made most Atlanta Braves fans cringe. Twitter exploded about how badly the Braves were playing on the West Coast, with many wondering why it became a habit in recent years. It is a habit but, there’s nothing recent about it.
Since 1876 the Braves franchise sports a 4999-4349 (.535 winning %) record at home against current NL teams, but the road record flips to 4228-5230 (.447%). That goes back a long way, I know, but not much changes moving forward.
Since 1940 the good guys are 5859-5528 (.513) overall: 3127-2552 (.551) at home and 2732-2976 (.479) on the road.
From 1996 through 2018, the Atlanta Braves have a 3815-3620 (.512) record overall, 2033-1681 (.547) at home, and 1782-1939 (.479) while traveling.
As you might imagine, the streak changed the dynamic considerably. Since 1991 the Braves are 2115-1641 against current NL teams overall, 1127-752 at home and finally above .500 on the road with a 988-899 record.
In that span, the Atlanta Braves are above .500 on the road against 11 teams. On the road, the Reds held a three-game advantage going into this season, the Giants a three-game lead, and the Dodgers were up by one.
That’s all old news, this is a new century and, as Flip Wilson once said, I don’t care what happened then, I want to know what’s happening now!”