Chipper Jones has joked in the past that the baseball gods were getting some overdue revenge against the Braves all at once for their unparalleled 14 years of postseason success.
If the last two days are any indication, Jones might be on to something. Atlanta played a rain-delayed, marathon, 562-pitch, 5-hour and 35-minute, 17-inning game against the Houston Astros on Sunday. The game, which was supposed to start at 1:35 p.m., did not begin until after mid-afternoon and ended just after the clock struck 9 p.m.
While the injury-depleted Braves won the game, they lost the battle of attrition and had to put three players on the disabled list after the contest.
And then the night just continued to get worse.
The club immediately ran into trouble at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The Braves' charter jet, which was loaded for departure at 10:40 p.m., was missing one of the pilots.
The plane full of weary Braves finally took off a little after midnight for the transcontinental flight to Los Angeles, arriving there at 4:17 a.m. EDT. It was 5:11 a.m. before the team finally made it to the hotel.
A long day at the office indeed.
Thus, it did not come as much of a surprise that the Braves came out flat on Monday night, managing just one hit off of Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda.
Not a good start for a club that is hanging on for dear life in the weak National League East.
Chipper Jones, the Braves and their fans had better hope that the baseball gods quickly start smiling upon the franchise once again.
DODGERS 3, BRAVES 0: The road-weary Braves were blanked by Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda, who retired the first 21 Braves batters he faced before Mark Teixeira doubled for Atlanta's lone hit in the eighth. Jorge Campillo allowed three runs and five hits, walked three and struck out two over seven innings in the losing effort.
