The Atlanta Braves’ second half schedule requires them to be road warriors as they attempt to chase down the Mets.
Now that the All-Star festivities are behind us, the 2022 season’s “second half” begins tomorrow and it’s worth a look at what the Atlanta Braves’ schedule has coming up… particularly as it compares to the Mets’ schedule.
With their 56-38 record, Atlanta has 68 games remaining, but it is heavily weighted towards road games: 38 of them, to be exact… an 8-game spread.
This team has played well in both home and road situations, overall, as they are 31-20 at Truist and 25-18 when out of the state.
This doesn’t tell the whole story, though, since the club is 33-11 since June began, and that included a number of road contests to begin that stretch – albeit largely against second-division teams.
For their part, the Mets (58-35) have 69 games left on their schedule, but theirs breaks down quite differently: 38 home games and just 31 on the road as they come down the stretch.
They are 24-18 since June began, but their schedule was brutal overall. Still, they have been better at home.
When it comes to forecasting the future, the devil is in the details, so we can’t just leave it at that.
Long Division
The Braves still have 12 sets of games coming against NL East divisional foes; the Mets have 11, but the sum total of games involved is 41 for both teams… 12 of them come against one another.
Happily, 7 of those 12 will take place at Truist Park.
Otherwise…
- vs. PHILADELPHIA
- ATL: 12 games (5 at home)
- NYM: 7 games (3 at home)
- vs. MIAMI
- ATL: 10 games (3 at home)
- NYM: 8 games (2 at home)
- vs. WASHINGTON
- ATL: 6 games (3 at home)
- NYM: 9 games (6 at home)
From this list, you’d have to conclude “Advantage Mets” since the Braves have more games left against their tougher divisional opponents (Also of note: all of the last 6 series’ that Atlanta plays are exclusively against the NL East).
As for the ‘non-conference’ portion of the schedule…
- BRAVES PLAY (3 games each unless otherwise noted)…
- LA Angels
- Arizona
- Boston (2 times)
- Houston
- Pittsburgh
- St. Louis
- Colorado
- Oakland (2)
- Seattle
- San Francisco
- METS PLAY (3 games each unless otherwise noted):
- San Diego
- Yankees (two sets of 2 games each)
- Cincinnati
- Colorado (4)
- LA Dodgers
- Pittsburgh (a 3-game set, then a 4 later on)
- Cubs
- Milwaukee
This looks a bit worse for the Mets, as they have to face the Padres, Dodgers, Yankees, and Brewers… all clubs with strong post-season aspirations – but it’s not nearly the kind of disadvantage they experienced in June. Plus, they get Cincy and Pittsburgh (twice) to balance things.
The Braves get the Red Sox, Astros, Cardinals, Mariners, and Giants; though it’s less clear about how tough all of these will be by the time those matchups occur.
Atlanta does have Seattle and San Fran as part of their last West coast road trip, which seems to add a measure of difficulty along the way.
If there’s a wild card in these schedules, it could be Juan Soto. If he’s traded in the next couple of weeks (that looks likely), his destination could impact the fortunes of whichever team he lands with (and if I were to handicap that race, my money would be on a Pacific Time Zone team).
That might increase the schedule difficulty for either the Mets or Braves… depending on the acquiring club.
On the other side of that coin, all 9 of the Mets’ remaining games vs. Washington come after the trade deadline, so Washington could very well play like a AAA club by then.
Conversely, as noted before, the Braves meet the Nationals only 6 more times.
Likewise, the Braves face an (almost certainly) depleted Oakland team twice more, while the Mets see them 3 times.
Overall: the home schedule disparity definitely leans toward the Mets, as does their divisional schedule difficulty.
Atlanta’s recent momentum is definitely in their favor, though we have to await the impact of whatever each team chooses to do at the trade deadline to see how their respective rosters improve.
It’s still evident that Atlanta has not yet seen everyone playing well at the same time, either, so there is room for improvement even before trade considerations.
The Mets’ pitching health is also going to be a major factor.
My expectations overall? This could come down to the last week of the season: the Braves had a big scheduling advantage in June; the rest of the way leans to the other side and the Braves will have to overcome that to avoid a Wild Card berth.
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.
Next: Fried in dominant form
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.
vs
40,545
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40,234
Truist Park
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40,310
Truist Park
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38,233
Truist Park
vs
42,263
Truist Park
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31,462
Truist Park
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31,959
Truist Park
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44,844
PETCO Park
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41,993
PETCO Park
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36,924
PETCO Park
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37,694
PETCO Park
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52,052
Dodger Stadium
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51,889
Dodger Stadium
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38,888
Dodger Stadium
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41,931
Truist Park
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38,440
Truist Park
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30,362
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34,183
Truist Park
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25,829
Globe Life Field
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36,097
Globe Life Field
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38,316
Globe Life Field
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23,413
Citi Field
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--
Citi Field
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27,206
Citi Field
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23,973
Citi Field
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36,307
Truist Park
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37,857
Truist Park
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36,551
Truist Park
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38,378
Truist Park
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37,200
Truist Park
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40,635
Truist Park
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40,490
Truist Park
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40,114
Truist Park
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25,880
American Family Field
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28,910
American Family Field
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27,014
American Family Field
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9,776
loanDepot park
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13,264
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17,908
loanDepot park
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41,762
Truist Park
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32,274
Truist Park
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29,339
Truist Park
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33,188
Truist Park
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40,064
Truist Park
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40,682
Truist Park
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39,669
Truist Park
at
20,735
Chase Field
at
12,686
Chase Field
at
12,370
Chase Field
at
26,594
Coors Field
at
37,336
Coors Field
at
41,054
Coors Field
at
39,409
Coors Field
vs
33,981
Truist Park
vs
42,075
Truist Park
vs
39,336
Truist Park
vs
41,404
Truist Park
vs
41,219
Truist Park
vs
35,446
Truist Park
at
20,571
Nationals Park
at
24,490
Nationals Park
at
21,153
Nationals Park
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35,676
Wrigley Field
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40,755
Wrigley Field
at
40,369
Wrigley Field
vs
40,589
Truist Park
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35,384
Truist Park
vs
38,478
Truist Park
vs
36,870
Truist Park
vs
42,105
Truist Park
vs
42,161
Truist Park
vs
42,217
Truist Park
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27,725
Citizens Bank Park
at
25,621
Citizens Bank Park
at
30,131
Citizens Bank Park
at
28,606
Great American Ball Park
at
26,755
Great American Ball Park
at
21,418
Great American Ball Park
vs
41,975
Truist Park
vs
35,656
Truist Park
vs
36,718
Truist Park
vs
37,756
Truist Park
vs
41,725
Truist Park
vs
40,632
Truist Park
vs
32,053
Truist Park
vs
42,925
Truist Park
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42,217
Truist Park
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34,879
Truist Park
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25,577
Nationals Park
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30,409
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37,880
Nationals Park
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26,043
Nationals Park
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42,867
Truist Park
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Truist Park
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42,663
Truist Park
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25,452
Citizens Bank Park
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27,486
Citizens Bank Park
at
29,038
Citizens Bank Park
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41,536
Truist Park
vs
41,682
Truist Park
vs
39,005
Truist Park
vs
38,932
Truist Park
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30,380
Truist Park
at
38,693
Citi Field
at
40,305
Citi Field
at
37,790
Citi Field
at
37,452
Citi Field
at
37,717
Citi Field
at
34,972
Fenway Park
at
35,406
Fenway Park
at
10,459
loanDepot park
at
7,308
loanDepot park
at
11,910
loanDepot park
at
10,902
loanDepot park
vs
38,380
Truist Park
vs
37,449
Truist Park
vs
34,308
Truist Park
vs
39,378
Truist Park
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42,837
Truist Park
vs
42,893
Truist Park
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42,531
Truist Park
at
11,231
PNC Park
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13,367
PNC Park
at
12,060
PNC Park
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46,027
Busch Stadium
at
46,119
Busch Stadium
at
42,897
Busch Stadium
vs
34,237
Truist Park
vs
29,554
Truist Park
vs
31,203
Truist Park
vs
42,161
Truist Park
vs
42,405
Truist Park
vs
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Oakland Coliseum
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Nationals Park
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