The Braves’ 10-game losing streak that began the 1988 season remains a franchise record, and was the National League record at the time. The streak featured famous names on the Braves and the opposition — and several themes familiar to fans watching this season’s team lose its first nine.
A look inside the streak:
Game 1, April 5: Cubs 10, Braves 9 (13 innings)
Bruce Sutter, making his first appearance in a game since May 27, 1986, gave up a two-run lead in the ninth inning, and the Braves lost in front of 34,929 on opening day at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
The teams used 13 pitchers overall and combined for seven homers, tying an opening-day record. The Braves hit four homers and had a seven-run fourth inning.
Ozzie Virgil, Ken Oberkfell and Gerald Perry drove in six runs with homers against starter Rick Sutcliffe. Andres Thomas added a homer in the eighth.
Game 2, April 6: Cubs 3, Braves 0
The winning pitcher was Greg Maddux, but was just becoming the force that would lead him to the Hall of Fame. In fact, AJC beat writer Gerry Fraley had to describe Maddux as “a wispy right-hander whose nickname among the Chicago Cubs is ‘Batboy.’’
Maddux was a week shy of his 22nd birthday. In the second half of the previous season he was 1-7 with an 8.86 ERA. In 36 previous appearances, opponents had hit .302 against him. His most recent win was on July 24, 1987.
Not so on April 6, 1988. He held the Braves to three hits, all singles. It jump-started a season in which he posted an 18-8 record with a 3.18 ERA. The following season Maddux finished third in voting for the Cy Young Award, which he later won four times.
Game 3, April 7: Dodgers 5, Braves 2
The attendance for the game: 5,257 on a Thursday night. The starter for the Dodgers was 43-year-old Don Sutton. He gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings.
Pedro Guerrero, Mike Marshall, Kirk Gibson, Mike Davis and John Shelby were a combined 6-for-19 with four RBIs. They entered the game 1-for-30 with no RBIs.
Braves starter Pete Smith held the Dodgers to five hits and two runs in seven innings, but he lost a one-run lead in each of his last two innings, on two-out hits by Marshall and Steve Sax.
Game 4, April 8: Dodgers 6, Braves 3
In the words of AJC beat writer Gerry Fraley: “The Braves so far have been sprinters, a demeaning horse-racing term for giving up the lead and not coming back. The Braves have led after the fifth inning in three of the games and were tied after six in the other loss.
“Their starters have pitched into the sixth inning three times. Their defense has made only one error.”
In the words of beloved Braves star Dale Murphy: “There’s not any one part of our game I’m concerned about. I’m not concerned about the way we’re playing. We just haven’t won, and that’s the bottom line.”
They would lose six more before they won their first, and they would lost 102 more that season.
Game 5, April 9: Dodgers 11, Braves 3
The first blowout of the season was made worse when reliever Jim Acker allowed five runs, including two homers before got an out in the eighth inning.
Dodgers lefty Fernando Valenzuela held the Braves to six hits in eight innings.
After the game, there were some major slumps in play for the Braves. Damaso Garcia became hitless in his past 15 at-bats, with four balls hit out of the infield. Dion James had two hits in his past 18 at-bats. Ken Oberkfell had two hits in his past 14 at-bats. Ken Griffey Sr. was 1-for-12, an infield hit.
Dale Murphy homered in the sixth, but that was his first extra-base hit and first RBI of the season. He had one single in his previous 15 at-bats.
Glavine started for the Braves and couldn’t his change-up for strikes. He allowed 11 base runners, three on walks. Two of those runners scored. He fell behind 4-0 after five innings.
Game 6, April 10: Dodgers 3, Braves 1
After six games, the Braves were hitting .206 and had a .314 slugging percentages, with only four of their past 32 hits going for extra bases.
The combined batting average for the first two spots in the batting order was .196 (10-for-51). Most of that was because Damaso Garcia, the No. 2 hitter, was hitless in his past 19 at-bats.
Game 7, April 12: Astros 8, Braves 3
The crowd on hand at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was 1,938, the smallest at the venue in nine years, and the Braves matched the mark for the team’s worst start since moving to Atlanta, when they were 0-7 in 1980.
After the game, beat writer Gerry Fraley wrote that “Ted Simmons hurled a chair at a door. Dale Murphy furiously dressed and stalked off, looking befuddled and saying ‘it’s frustrating.’”
Said Ken Griffey Sr.: “Losing gets to you. It gets real old. We come out swinging, and then we stop. We have to make our own breaks. We have to keep going the whole game.”
Astros starter Nolan Ryan blew an early three-run lead, but retired 20 of the next 21 hitters he faced after Andres Thomas’ run-scoring single in the first.
The Braves’ four-hit performance dropped their batting average to .197.
Game 8: April 13: Astros 4, Braves 0
With 3,810 customers in the house, the Braves managed only two hits, both singles, against the Astros’ Jim Deshaies. Those hits were by Dale Murphy in the second inning and by Damaso Garcia in the sixth.
Before Murphy could get the first hit, the Astros scored three runs in the first inning.
Game 9, April 15: Dodgers 3, Braves 2
In their first road game, the Braves tied what was then the National League record for consecutive losses at the beginning of a season, a mark held by the 1918 Brooklyn Dodgers, the 1919 Boston Braves, the 1962 New York Mets and the 1983 Houston Astros.
The futility was wearing on the players.
Shortstop Andres Thomas had to come between catcher Ozzie Virgil and first baseman Gerald Perry during a meeting on the mound in the sixth inning. Beat writer Gerry Fraley wrote that the confrontation started because Virgil was unhappy no one alerted him that Kirk Gibson was going from first to third on a wild pitch.
The Braves led 2-0, but Fraley wrote that starter Tom Glavine was undone by a “chopper that became a double, two wild pitches, three flare singles, a runner who reached on a strikeout and a balk.”
Game 10, April 16: Dodgers 7, Braves 4
In the game last loss of the record streak, the Braves again showed no power. They had 10 hits, but all were singles. For the season, the Braves now had 13 extra-base hits in 334 at-bats.
Six years after the Braves started a season by winning a National League-record 13 consecutive games, they held the NL mark for losses to begin a season.
