Braves hope to defy history

ATLANTA — The Braves are back in the A-T-L for a decisive postseason game.

That’s not necessarily a good omen for the home team.

Over the years, Atlanta has been the place where other teams come to celebrate in October.

The Cardinals hope to continue that trend when they face the Braves in Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Wednesday.

“I was just a little kid when that happened,” Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson said with a shrug. “History is history. We’re in the moment now. This is a completely different and new team.”

Indeed, Swanson was just 7 years old when Atlanta began a streak of nine straight postseason-round losses with a five-game setback to the Diamondbacks in the 2001 NL Championship Series.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore that the Braves are just one series loss away from equaling an ignominious record set by the Cubs, who lost 10 series in a row between 1908 and 2003.

The Cubs finally ended their playoff misery in Game 5 of the ’03 NLDS — at Turner Field, of all places. In fact, it became a bit of a running gag that one of baseball’s most popular spots for celebratory pictures was the pitcher’s mound in Atlanta, since nine visiting teams eliminated the Braves at their previous ballpark, with the Cardinals doing it twice.

The move to SunTrust Park in 2017 didn’t change the Braves’ fortunes.

Last season, the Braves were closed out at home by the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLDS.

Perhaps it was only appropriate that this best-of-five series comes down to a winner-take-all contest. Three of four games have been decided in the final inning. The margin between the teams has been two runs or fewer in all but three of 37 innings.

“This has been an unbelievable series,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Both teams just banging at each other and the close games and the late-inning heroics. It’s been something. It’s been exhausting.”