Braves come back home, take deep breath, and finally win

“Bad road trip,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said before the home opener. “No real way to spin it. You can find ways to get better from it, and that’s what we are planning on doing.”

That’s what the Braves did. Fans who’d watched them flail for a week on the West Coast witnessed them flourish at Truist Park against the Marlins. The Braves finally played a complete game and were rewarded with a 10-0 victory before a sellout crowd of 41,583.

This was the kind of performance Braves supporters had become accustomed to during seven straight winning seasons. The Marlins couldn’t touch starter Spencer Schwellenbach (eight innings, two singles allowed, 10 strikeouts, no walks). They struggled to retire Braves hitters one through five (combined 11-for-24 with two home runs and two doubles).

The Braves led 3-0 through six innings, then broke out for seven runs during their final two at-bats.

“That’s what they needed,” Braves Manager Brian Snitker said of his players. “They needed to win a game big. We’ve been playing tough, close games and losing. So that was good for them to experience that, feel that again and (remember), ‘You know what, you guys are really good.‘”

No doubt, the Braves dropped down in class. The Dodgers are heavy favorites to win the National League pennant. The Padres are projected to win a wild card. The Marlins lost 100 games last season and should be bad again. They’ve lost the season series to the Braves for 10 consecutive years and sent out a lineup of relatively anonymous players on Friday.

None of that diminishes this victory for the Braves. They needed to win to change the vibes. They needed to score a bunch of runs to change the narrative. They accomplished all that while turning Truist into a party.

“That was a lot of fun,” Schwellenbach said. “First game back home for 2025 season and that was a good one. A lot of energy in that stadium tonight and we fed off of it, for sure.”

The good feelings started before the game when Braves players and coaches paraded through The Battery. Fans lined both sides of the streets and gave MLB’s only winless team an enthusiastic reception.

“You would have thought we were 7-0,” Snitker said.

“It’s cool seeing how many people have your back and how many people are rooting for you,” rookie catcher Drake Baldwin said. “It makes it easier to just compete and gives us a little bit extra to go out there and try to win games.”

One reason the Braves didn’t win during the trip was because two of their best sluggers, Olson and Ozuna, hadn’t been slugging. The pair had no home runs in the seven games and just three extra-base hits (all doubles by Olson). Ozuna and Olson were piling up walks, but the Braves needed them to drive in runs.

Both hitters delivered against the Marlins. Ozuna tallied three RBIs with a double in the third inning and a lead-off home run in the seventh. Olson followed Ozuna’s homer with one of his own and hit a two-run single in the eighth inning. Austin Riley also broke out of his slump with two hits, including a single that scored Ozuna in the eighth.

The Braves scored more earned runs in one night than they did during their first seven games (nine).

Said Ozuna: “Everybody knows who we are, and everybody knows sometimes you are hot, sometimes you are cold. On the road we was cold, and the weather was cold. Nothing better than being home.”

The Braves even got some home cooking. Olson said his mother prepared Rice Krispie Treats for the team.

“She thinks that gives us a spark,” he said. “She’s done it a few times. I just saw here out in the tunnel and she’s taking credit for (the victory).”

Everyone associated with the Braves did their part. It was just one game against a bad opponent, but the Braves had to start somewhere. Now we’ll see if they can go on a run and make a historic comeback from their 0-7 hole.

During MLB’s World Series era (since 1903), no MLB team has ever started the season with that many losses in a row and advanced to the playoffs.

“I don’t buy into that whatsoever,” Riley said before the game. “This is a really good club, and I truly believe that. Really good teams lose seven in the middle of the season and it’s just a hiccup.”

Maybe the Braves simply had their hiccup to begin the season. They have more talent than most of the 27 teams that started 0-7. It was hard to tell during the opening trip. They finally showed it when they came back home.