Sunday, June 08, 2008
Sports, In this Issue...
The lonesome highway blues
Braves remain optimistic despite frustrating road loss streak
Doug Benc/Getty Images
The look on Tom Glavine’s face says it all as the Braves fall to the Washington Nationals on April 30.By Michael Mahan
So far in 2008, the Atlanta Braves have been Major League Baseball’s version of “Sybil.” It doesn’t take Dr. Phil to diagnose this team with dual personality disorder, and the affliction appears to be solely tied to location, location, location.
Seemingly unbeatable when playing in their own backyard at Turner Field, where they have the best home record in the majors, the Braves are also one of the worst road teams in the league. Having lost three out of every four (7-22) away games so far this season, the Braves still find themselves in the thick of the National League East race in early June on the strength of their home-field dominance. The schizophrenic results are downright baffling.
“It’s hard to put your finger on why the records are so different,” pitcher Tim Hudson tells The Sunday Paper. “We’re not playing horrible baseball [on the road], we’re playing just good enough to lose. We're losing a lot of close games.”
He’s right. The silver lining is that out of the 21 road losses, an astounding 12 have been by a margin of a single run. And the losing is a team effort, with scores such as 1-0, 4-3 and 12-11. While winning only seven of their first 29 away from Turner Field, the Braves have been outscored on the road by a total of only nine runs. In stark contrast, the Braves won 25 of their first 31 at home, outscoring their opponents by 63 total runs. It may be better to be lucky than good, as the saying goes; at home, the Braves have been both. On the road, luck hasn’t been on their side.
“THINGS WILL TURN AROUND”
“We play good on the road,” says manager Bobby Cox, whose club embarks on a 10-game, four-city road trip this week. “All the games are so tight it’s unreal. We’ll get guys on, and then someone will hit a screamin’ meanie, and it’s always right at someone. We seem to get the big hit at home, and on the road we hit the ball hard and, believe it or not; it just seems to never fall in.”
The Braves aren’t panicking—after all, they’re still in contention—but they also know that championship teams win on the road. “We’d like to see a turnaround, because it’s obviously getting a little ridiculous,” says second baseman Kelly Johnson. “Sometimes it seems like we haven’t lost a game at home, and haven’t won a game on the road.”
Without offering excuses, Johnson provides some insight into the glamorous life of the pro ballplayer. “[At home], you wake up in your own bed, in your own home and you’re familiar with it,” he says. “You go on the road, and you get back from the game, you’re in a hotel room, and you’ve got a bed and a TV and there’s nothing else to do. Guys might tend to stay up late watching TV. I think maybe you get to a point where you get in a little different routine, and maybe it throws us off. It’s funny, because I remember last year having to answer some questions about why our road batting averages were so much higher than our home averages. It’s kind of weird. It doesn’t make much sense to anybody.”
Still, the Braves are optimistic. “We just can’t get it going on the road, but I think we’ll do it eventually,” Jeff Francoeur tells SP. “Hopefully, once we do, it will come tenfold for us. It’s one thing if we’re getting crushed on the road, but we’re losing by one or two runs, so we’re in it, and I think that it’s the start of summer now and things will turn around.”
A LOT OF BASEBALL YET TO BE PLAYED
Such clear-headed thinking is crucial; the worst mistake the Braves could make right now would be to overthink the problem. A few more timely hits or strikeouts can make all the difference; there’s no need for an overhaul. Hudson, for one, knows that the best thing the Braves can do is be themselves and act natural.
“You’ve got to go out there and understand you’re not playing horrible baseball, you're not shooting yourself in the foot for the most part,” he says. “There are some things that you can maybe do better, but you’re not going to play a total mistake-free game on the road, you just hope that you’re able to offset that with a little better pitching or a little better hitting to take care of some of the mistakes that you do make.”
All things considered, in a down year for the N.L. East, the Braves appear to be right where they want to be. The surprising, unproven Marlins lead the division. The underachieving, big-payroll Mets and inconsistent Phillies are bunched together with Atlanta. The Braves are a good team and they know it, especially at Turner Field. Now they just need a few more breaks to go their way on the road. While losing several tight games may be frustrating, so far it hasn’t been fatal. Besides, there’s a lot of baseball yet to be played.
“No matter how bad or how well you do, whether you win or lose a game, you can’t carry over anything from one day to the next,” says Johnson. “You wake up and you try to prepare for each day. You’ve got to get yourself ready for another game.”
No matter where that game might be. SP