Atlanta Braves’ Austin Riley (27) celebrates his two-run homer against the Los Angeles Dodgers in … More
Unlike the NFL, Major League Baseball announces its season schedule without any more fanfare than a press release. No two-hour television specials or team-produced social media videos.
The Atlanta Braves did not need any of that to know they got a tough season-opening assignment from MLB’s schedule makers.
The Braves began the season with a seven-game swing through Southern California with four games against the San Diego Padres and three versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers won the World Series last year. Many of the Dodgers players and coaches believe the Padres would have won it all if Los Angeles hadn’t rallied to beat San Diego in a National League Division Series.
The road trip was even more difficult than the Braves expected. They lost all seven games.
“I knew it was going to be a rough stretch there obviously,” manager Brian Snitker said. “When those teams are at full strength – and they were at the start of the season – you know they’re going to be tough to beat, especially when you’re playing them on the road.
“I think we might have one lead the whole trip. We got beat up pretty good. That’s really all there was to it.”
Braves Look To Get Over .500
The Braves have been slowly digging out of the early-season hole. They have won 22 of 37 games to even their record at 22-22.
The next step for the Braves is getting over .500 for the first time this season. They will try to that step Friday night in the opener of a three-game series against the Red Sox in Boston after taking three of four from the Washington Nationals in a series that ended Thursday in Atlanta.
The season could have gotten away from the Braves before it barely started. However, third baseman Austin Riley says they never panicked.
“I look it this way, you’re going to go through your rough stretches over a 162-game season,” Riley said. “We just happened have one right at the start of the season and that magnified everything. I think if we had a seven-game losing streak in the middle of the season that people wouldn’t have thought much about it.
“We left some opportunities out there against two really good teams, but guys continued to work, to come in every day and put the time and things started to flip. We’ve been playing some good baseball and we’re in a good mindset.”
The Braves also have a winning pedigree. They won six straight NL East titles from 2018-23 then made the postseason again last season as a wild card.
“We have guys who understand it’s a long season and you’ve got to trust the process,” Riley said.
The Braves’ offense has yet to heat up, ranking 21st in MLB in runs scored with 3.98 a game. The pitching has been good as the Braves are 11th in ERA with a 3.70 mark.
Left-hander Chris Sale is off to a 1-3 start with a 3.97 ERA in nine outings after winning the NL Cy Young Award this season.
However, right-hander AJ Smith-Shawyer is an early Rookie of the Year candidate with a 3-2 record and a 2.33 ERA in seven starts.
Atlanta Braves pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against … More
The 22-year-old is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in his last four games.
Reinforcements On The Way
The Braves are expected to get two key players back from the injured list next week: right-hander Spencer Strider and right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr.
Strider was limited to two starts last season before undergoing internal brace surgery on his right elbow. He made his 2025 debut on April 16 then went back on the IL with a hamstring strain,
In 2023, Strider led the major leagues in wins as he went 20-5 and his 281 strikeouts also topped MLB.
That same year, Acuna was the NL MVP when he became the first 40-70 player with 41 home runs and 73 stolen bases. However, Acuna sustained a torn knee ligament on May 26 last year and missed the rest of the season. He is on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Braves are in third place in the NL East, six games behind the first-place New York Mets. However, Snitker feels they have plenty of time to make up ground, especially with Strider and Acuna close to returning.
“It’s really going to be like making two big trades when we get those guys back,” Snitker said. “We had the tough start, but everything usually balances out in baseball. Our guys hung in there, kept their daily approach, and the energy was never bad.
“They were working as hard as ever but it just wasn’t translating into wins,” the Atlanta Braves manager added. Now, it is.”
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