On Monday, the Braves begin their first West Coast road trip of the 2018 season. Perhaps those words don’t fill you with trepidation. After all, the Braves just took three of four from the preseason designees for division champion, have a 1.5-game lead in the NL East, and the sixth-best record in baseball. But, spanning the continent has rarely resulted in good outcomes for the Braves.
There are two main issues, as I see them, with the Braves and these trips to places abutting the Pacific Ocean. First is the more obvious: the Braves just haven’t played particularly well while there.