#Braves benefitting from big home-field edge: ‘Wild in here’

ATLANTA — The Braves were last seen on this field celebrating a National League championship, a fifth straight win on their turf this postseason, which brings a something’s-got-to-give element to Friday’s Game 3 of the World Series.

Either the Braves, tied 1-1 with the Astros in the series, will finally lose at Truist Park this postseason or will snap a five-game home losing streak in the World Series that dates to 1996 in long-since-demolished Fulton County Stadium.

“I know there hasn’t been a World Series game here for quite some time,” said Ian Anderson, the scheduled starting pitcher for Atlanta, referring to 1999 — when the Braves hosted the Yankees at Turner Field.

A city desperate for a title (the 1995 Braves are the only team in the four major professional sports to win a championship for Atlanta) will be hoping another road game this baseball season won’t be necessary. By splitting the first two games in Houston, the Braves put themselves in position to hoist a World Series trophy on their own field.

A village of restaurants, bars and stores outside the ballpark, called The Battery, adds a Mardi Gras-like element to the scene. Fans arrive several hours before the first pitch and stay late, turning game days, especially in the postseason, into a giant party.

“I think the whole Battery, Truist Park concept and all led to this being a really fun place to come and watch a game,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s wild in here. It has been all year really. We’ve had great crowds from the beginning of opening things up again.”

Atlanta is cognizant of heroes past, as this first World Series game at Truist Park, which opened in 2017, approaches. In the past year, Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro and Don Sutton (he was a longtime broadcaster for the team) all died, hurting the soul of the organization.

Aaron’s retired “44” is ingrained in the center-field grass, a reminder of his stature as the game’s all-time home-run king for over three decades, and the class and stature he brought to the franchise.

“I’ve said many times there’s a lot of bragging going on in heaven right now with all those guys,” Snitker said, referring to Aaron, Niekro and Sutton, along with former Braves owner Bill Bartholomay, who died in 2020. “I can’t imagine how all of them guys, how proud they would be of everybody.”

Another link to Braves history will be sitting in the visiting dugout. Astros manager Dusty Baker was Aaron’s teammate with the Braves for seven seasons, beginning in 1968.

“What are the chances of me being back here with the Houston Astros, where I got my first hit, back in Atlanta, back when I was a kid?” Baker said. “You think about the things that transpired in your life here. This is kind of where I grew up in my professional career.”

The Braves’ home losing streak in the World Series consists of five straight losses to the Yankees, in 1996 and ’99. The Braves’ postseason winning streak at home overall is six games, dating to the 2019 NLDS against the Cardinals.

“Braves Country is real,” Snitker said. “It’s been around for a while, for a lot, a lot of years. This has been a special area, what the Atlanta Braves bring. The fans have come out in droves.

“I don’t know that this group needs a lot more energy than what they have, but I think they can draw on the energy of the crowd, and they enjoy it and appreciate it.”