Braves Notes: Brian Snitker on his team’s struggles at Dodger Stadium

As the NLCS shifts to Dodger Stadium, the Atlanta Braves are looking to keep the pressure on the Los Angeles Dodgers and push them further to elimination. To do so, they are going to need to win in a stadium that they have struggled in recent history.

Since 2014, the Braves are just 20-38 at Dodger Stadium in the regular season and the playoffs and are just 4-20 over their last 24 games. They have lost seven straight and 10 of the last 11 overall.

“Not really. We lost three games here this year that we were in all three of them, we were a pitch away, a hit away,” Brian Snitker said when asked about Atlanta’s struggles in Los Angeles. “Since I’ve been managing we came in one year and I think maybe won three out of four, but since then we haven’t been really good.”

The Dodgers have been really good over that stretch and have compiled a winning percentage of at least .562 every season. They have won at least 91 games during that span and went 43-17 in last season’s 60-game regular season.

“I don’t know. I mean, they’re really tough here,” Snitker added. “It’s just kind of been coincidence, I guess, how the games have went, but I really can’t put my finger on any one thing because we did some really good things in that time, just couldn’t finish a game off.”

Dave Roberts told reporters Tuesday that Julio Urias will start Game 4 Wednesday. The Braves are likely to go with a bullpen game but Snitker didn’t want to confirm that saying that they would reevaluate and see where they are at after Game 3.

“Yeah. We’ll just probably see, we’ll evaluate after the day today to see how we’re going to go about that.”

The Braves have been asked a lot over the last few days about having a 2-0 lead on the Dodgers for the second straight season. Atlanta led 2-0 and 3-1 in the 2020 NLCS but saw Los Angeles come back and win three straight to advance to the World Series. They have talked a lot about how that experience has helped them through this postseason run. Brian Snitker agreed with that assessment and said that he really felt as though his young core took that step forward last postseason.

“I think it’s good and I think it’s good that we experienced that last year,” Snitker said. “We were a young team trying to take the next step. We kind of took the next step last year.”

Atlanta built that lead last year despite a lack of experience in the starting rotation. Max Fried and Ian Anderson are both a year removed and the team acquired Charlie Morton for exactly this type of situation.

“I think the experience of what we went through and how important every game is will be good for these guys and they will remember that,” Snitker added. “I couldn’t think of anybody else I would rather have on the mound right now for us today than Charlie.”