Highlights and lowlights: Atlanta Braves schedule for 2023

The Atlanta Braves’ 2023 season begins on March 30 and runs through October 1st, but fundamental changes are contained therein.

No, we haven’t quite finished up the 2022 campaign, but the 2023 schedule for the Atlanta Braves has now hit the street… and it definitely looks different.

The biggest change is that every team will play every other team for at least one series — something never done before in major league baseball.

This also has the effect of reducing the number of intra-divisional games, though it also produces — in theory — a more balanced schedule overall.

That’s the kind of thinking that went into this plan, though as we’ve seen in every year, playing a hot team can be much more difficult than playing a team that’s in a funk… just ask anyone with the Yankees on their schedule since the All-Star break.

But with that slight complaint said, let’s take a quick look at how the Braves’ 2023 schedule looks.

The Basics

• Opening Day:  March 30th in Washington
• Opening Day at home:  April 6 vs. San Diego
• Memorial Day?  On the road vs. Oakland
• July 4th?  On the road vs. Cleveland
• All-Star Break:  July 10-13
• Labor Day?  It’s an off day

So the Braves end up with no major holidays at home… not even Mother’s Day, if you want to include that.

• American League teams faced at home:  Houston, Baltimore, Boston (faced twice on road as well), Seattle, Minnesota, White Sox, Angels (July 31-Aug2), Yankees (Aug 14-16).  All others are seen on the road.
• All national league teams outside the NL East are still opposed with both home-and-home series matchups.
• Braves face every division rival 13 times.

The Oddities

• 17 straight games from April 21 through May 7… which includes trips to New York and Miami, bookended by homestands.
• After a Sunday game vs. Philadelphia in Atlanta on May 28, Braves fly to Oakland with no off-day in between.
• After a 6-day homestand June 6-11, Braves fly to Detroit for 3 games and then immediately come back home to face Colorado and 4 games… then hit the road again after an off day, which ends a 13-game streak over 13 days.
• The longest road trip comes in August (4th through 13th), with trips to Wrigley Field, PNC Park, and Citi Field.

Despite the plethora of teams player, the West Coast road trips are surprisingly favorable:

• Kansas City to San Diego in April
• Toronto to Texas in May (does that count?)
• Oakland and Arizona between May and June
• (and the worst trip) Giants/Rockies/Dodgers straddling August and September… with 3 off-days mixed among those matchups.

Normally, an MLB schedule will have extra off-days built into August and September to allow for make-up dates in case of rainouts.  That’s one drawback for this scheduling scheme, since travel will be a killer to make up such contests — particularly when rainouts involve teams from opposing leagues.

As for Atlanta, while they have extra off days for that aforementioned West Coast trip ending on September 5th, they only have 3 days off during September… and they finish the season playing 19 games over 20 days.

At least 10 of those games involve the Nationals and Cubs, who don’t really project to be terribly competitive next year.

So that’s what we’re in for… a lot of variety, but on balance, it looks like the schedule makers were relatively kind to the Braves, as the travel could have been a lot worse.