With the St. Louis Cardinals winning game 4 to force a game-deciding game 5, we look back at the history of the Atlanta Braves in winner-take-all games.
It may hurt to look back at the postseason history of the Atlanta Braves, but there were some bright spots along the way.
On Wednesday the Atlanta Braves will face their ninth winner-take-all game since coming to Atlanta. The Atlanta Braves are 3-5 in such games having lost the last four winner-take-all games in the postseason.
Here is a look at those series:
2012 NL Wild Card vs. Cardinals — Lost
2004 NLDS vs. Houston Astros — Lost
2003 NLDS vs. Chicago Cubs — Lost
2002 NLDS vs. San Francisco Giants — Lost
1996 NLCS vs. St. Louis Cardinals — Won
1992 NLCS vs. Pittsburgh Pirates — Won
1991 World Series vs. Minnesota Twins — Lost
1991 NLCS vs. Pittsburgh Pirates — Won
It’s easy to wonder why so many people think Atlanta sports is cursed when you look at what this city has experience in the postseason over the past 20 years.
Somehow I must have forgotten that we lost three straight winner-take-all games in the NLDS from 2002-2004 — that’s just torture.
And we all know what happened the last time we faced the Cardinals in a winner-take-all game … and we all know that umpire who will not be named is also part of this winner-take-all game.
But those teams in the ninties, what we are trying to build again, seemed to always come up big in these spots.
At some point that narrative has to change for this team, right? And why not now?
This Atlanta Braves team has yet to play to its potential in this series, so perhaps they’ll finally break out in this game and begin to change the narrative.
Another series loss in the postseason wouldn’t do much for the confidence of this team going forward. But if they were to get the job done and win a winner-take-all game to advance, they could not only ride that momentum into the NLCS, but into future seasons as well.
On Wednesday the Atlanta Braves will have a huge opportunity to get a giant monkey off their back and change the narrative for this team going forward.