The 2020 Atlanta Braves schedule is out and we break it down looking at the difficulty of this 60-game grind.
We now know the exact road the Atlanta Braves will have to go down to repeat as National League East champs once again.
Obviously, it’s not nearly what we expected back when Spring Training began, but yet here we are in July coming up on opening day in just a few weeks.
As almost everyone is aware by now, the schedule will only be 60 games long and will truly be a sprint to the finish and not the long grueling summer stretch we have all become accustomed too.
However, as the old adage goes, it’s the same for every team, right? Well….probably wrong.
The 2020 season will see the Atlanta Braves and every other east coast regional team travel only along the eastern seaboard as each team will play 40 in division games and 20 inter-league games against the cross league eastern teams.
I think it’s extremely fair to say that the East will be the hardest division’s to conquer with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, defending champion Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Rays, and a revamped New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies team looking to compete.
Now, let’s get to the nuggets about the recently released schedule.
Opening Day for the Atlanta Braves and most of the rest of major league baseball will be July 24th.
For Opening Day, the Braves drew the New York Mets and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN. That should be a low scoring affair in what should likely be Mets ace Jacob deGrom squaring off against the Atlanta Braves and Mike Soroka most likely.
From there the Atlanta Braves will travel right past Atlanta and go ahead and get the four games against the Tampa Bay Rays completed before taking on the New York Mets once again.
Another quick point of reference would be the Braves play 19 straight games to begin the abbreviated season before getting a day off after a trip to play the Phillies and New York Yankees.
An important note about August is the Braves play all 10 of their games against the Phillies in a three week period and do not play them again in the month of September.
The silver lining to the grueling schedule as far as the Atlanta Braves are concerned has to be the fact that the team closes out the season with a lot of games against the Miami Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, and Boston Red Sox who figure to be the three worst teams in the East.
With that being said, the Braves should conceivably close out the season and with a bang.
Hopefully that bang is claiming another NL East crown.
Here’s to also hoping fans can show up to games in short order.