After the Boston Braves won the 1914 World Series, earning the moniker the “Miracle Braves” in the process after going 68-19 in their final 87 games to win the National League, the Braves franchise only made five appearances in the postseason until 1991.
Five. From 1915 through 1990. Five.
In 1991, modern era of success began as the Atlanta Braves won the first of their 14 National League Division championships in a row. It’s a refrain Braves fans know by heart.
Except for one little quibble.
The 1994 Braves did not win the division.
We all know why this happened – the players strike began on August 12, 1994, and led to the cancellation of the remainder of the regular season and the postseason by then Commissioner Bud Selig on September 14, 1994.
That result meant that no team won the 1994 National League East, and thus the Braves string of division titles – which was at only three-in-a-row at the time – would go on to add 11 more seasons to its streak before finally coming to an end in 2006.
On August 11, 1994 – the last game before the strike – Greg Maddux pitched a three-hit shutout in Denver against the Colorado Rockies, earning his 16th win and lowering his ERA to 1.56 as the Braves pummeled the Rockies 13-0. The Braves picked up 20 hits that day, led by starting centerfielder Mike Kelly’s four hits with leftfielder Dave Gallagher, first baseman Fred McGriff and Maddux all adding three hits apiece.
That’s right. Greg Maddux allowed three hits and no runs to the Rockies will going 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored himself. Legend.
Paired with a loss by the Montreal Expos, the Braves ended the night six games behind the Expos with a 68-46 record with 48 games left to play in the season.
The 1994 season was setting itself up to be historic with Tony Gwynn flirting with hitting .400 – he finished at .394; Ken Griffey, Jr. and Matt Williams had both slugged more than 40 home runs providing optimism that one of the two could chase down Roger Maris’ magic number 61; and Montreal, with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, was leading all of MLB in wins with 74.
Then, the season ended.
It was 30 years ago that the Braves got an “out” in their streak. Although no one will ever know if the Braves – who had the third-best record in baseball and the second-best in the NL – could have caught the Expos in the final month-and-a-half of the regular season, had it been played in full.
With that season’s anniversary upon us, let’s reflect on the 1994 Braves team, one that was coming off of a 104-win regular season in 1993 but lost in the postseason when they were foiled by the Phillies in the NLCS.
Although the Braves were in second place when the 1994 season came to an end, they did spend more than 100 days in first place during the campaign that started with an Opening Day win in San Diego when Maddux bested Andy Benes and the Padres for a 4-1 victory.
The Braves opened the season with Deion Sanders in centerfield, Ryan Klesko in left field, David Justice in right field and an infield of Terry Pendleton at third, Jeff Blauser at shortstop, Mark Lemke and second base, McGriff at first base and Javy Lopez behind the plate.
The starting line-up took a blow in Spring Training when Chipper Jones blew out his knee after landing wrong on first base on March 18, 1994. The loss of Jones, who was penciled in to play every day – likely splitting time between several positions on the infield and outfield – was an exacerbating one because the outfield had already suffered an unexpected loss earlier in the offseason when the team released All-Star left fielder Ron Gant who had finished fifth in the 1993 NL MVP vote after hitting 36 home runs, driving in 117 runners and scoring 113 runs while stealing 26 bases after he broke his leg in an offseason ATV accident.
Elsewhere on the roster, the 1994 Braves team had relatively little turnover, although the team did say good-bye to several role players who had helped lead the Braves’ turn around earlier in the decade when the team traded outfielder/first baseman Brian Hunter to the Pirates, starting pitcher Pete Smith to the Mets, and released catchers Greg Olson and Francisco Cabrera while allowing fellow catcher Damon Berryhill to leave via free agency.
The team did add reserve outfielder Gallagher in the Smith trade and brought in catcher Charlie O’Brien and reliever Gregg Olson via free agency, among other minor moves. But Atlanta was looking for top position player prospects Lopez, Klesko and outfielder Tony Tarasco to become major contributors in the wake of the injuries to Jones and Gant.
The team did make one major trade during the season when they sent Sanders to the Reds for centerfield Roberto Kelly in the final days of May. Sanders, the two-sport sensation, had clashes with the front office for several seasons, but was slashing .288/.342/.381 with 19 stolen bases for the Braves. Kelly, who coming off of back-to-back All-Star selections, was hitting a similar .302/.351/.397 with nine steals for the Reds and would finish his only stint in Atlanta with a .286/.345/.439 line.
At the All-Star break, the Braves were 52-33, one game up on the Expos. Both teams were well-represented at the 1994 All-Star Game, with Maddux and Justice appearing in the game as starters and McGriff, who would be named MVP of the All-Star Game, rounding out the Braves contingent as a reserve. For the Expos, starting pitcher Ken Hill, catcher Darrin Fletcher, shortstop Wil Cordero and outfielders Moises Alou and Marquis Grissom made the National League team as reserves.
After the returning from the All-Star break, the two teams would battle for first place until late July, when the Expos took advantage of the Braves stumbling through several weeks of playing .500 ball while going on a torrid 20-2 run before losing what turned out to be the season’s final game.
The Expos offensive was led by Hall of Fame outfielder Larry Walker and Alou, both of whom finished the season with an OPS+ of 151 or better. But it was the team’s pitching staff that was leading the way for Montreal.
The team’s starting rotation featured four starters with an ERA+ of 124 or better, led by swingman Butch Henry who had a 174 ERA+ in 24 games and 15 starts. Jeff Fassero had given the team a 142 ERA+ in 21 starts while Hill had picked up 16 wins in 23 starts with a 127 ERA+ and future Hall of Fame starter Pedro Martinez led the starting rotation with 8.8 K/9 with a 124 ERA+ in 23 starts.
The bullpen was equally dominate with John Wetteland securing 25 saves with a 150 ERA+ and 9.6 K/9 and co-closer Mel Rojas saving 16 games with a 128 ERA+ and 9.0 K/9. Tim Scott led the bullpen with a 157 ERA+ in 40 games.
For Atlanta, the loss of Gant and Jones led to a lot of platooning of players all-over the diamond, with only McGriff, Justice and Lemke appearing in 100-or-more games and only Blauser and Klesko seeing action in 90+ contests.
On offense, the team was led by McGriff whose 34 home runs, 94 RBI and .318 average, 1.012 OPS and 157 OPS+ all led the team. McGriff, who was in his first full season with the Braves, was on pace to break the franchise’s single-season home run record, which stood at 47 – a total shared by Hall of Famers Hank Aaron (1971) and Eddie Matthews (1953).
Elsewhere in the lineup, Justice was also having an outstanding season, with a .959 OPS and 147 OPS+ as was Ryan Klesko with a .907 OPS and 130 OPS+. Of the other qualifying position players, only Roberto Kelly finished the season with an OPS+ greater than 100, although there were also getting solid production from their catching tandem of Lopez and O’Brien and the best offensive output of Lemke’s career.
Like the 1993 team, the 1994 Braves pitching staff used only 13 pitchers all season – which included one spot-start by Brad Woodall. The team’s rotation was led by Maddux and his otherworldly 271 ERA+. The rest of the team’s rotation was slightly above league average with Tom Glavine (106), Steve Avery (105), John Smoltz (102) all following Kent Mercker (123) in the ERA+ category.
Mercker would become the last Braves pitcher to toss a no-hitter when he did so against the Dodgers on April 8, 1994. That was Atlanta’s first no-hitter since Mercker started during the team’s combined no-hitter during the 1991 season.
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Outside of the struggles of former All-Star closer Gregg Olson and depth reliever Milt Hill, the team’s relief pitchers were effective. Led by the soft-tossing closer Greg McMichael and his 21 saves, the team leaned on lefty Mike Stanton and former NL Cy Young winner Steve Bedrosian as two of the three primary set-up men, and both responded with an ERA+ of 120 and 128, respectively.
The team was also remaining patient with hard-throwing right-hander Mark Wohlers who was striking out 10.2 per nine innings but also walking 5.8 per nine. Walks were an issue for the bullpen as-a-whole with only McMichael walking less than three batters per nine innings – and even he did so at a 2.9/per nine innings rate.
When the Braves season ended in 1993, no one with the organization would have expected Gallagher and Tony Tarasco to see action in 87 or more games in the outfield, or that Bill Pecota would have played in 31 games at third base.
Furthermore, no one was expecting Glavine, Avery and Smoltz to have a collective ERA north of 4.00 as all three were coming off of All-Star seasons in 1993. Glavine’s struggles were especially unexpected as he had finished in the top three of the NL Cy Young Award for the third-straight seasons after winning the award in 1991.
Despite those performances not being prognosticated, the team ended the season with a .596 winning percentage, which was a 97-win projection (when rounding).
At the time of the strike, the Braves had won four-of-six games in the last week of the season after slumping to a 20-18 record since the beginning of that July.
Could Montreal continue to play at the break-neck pace they had for the prior three weeks to the season’s conclusion? Was Atlanta turning the corner from their post-All-Star break swoon? Would Atlanta have made the playoffs as the first-ever NL Wild Card team if Montreal did win the East? If the Expos had won the NL East or made a playoff-run as a Wild Card, would they have stayed in Montreal?
Thirty years later, those questions remain unanswered.
Jones would return from injury in 1995 and go on to have a Hall of Fame career. Gant would also make his comeback in 1995 with an All-Star season for the Cincinatti Reds and play through the 2003 season. Tarasco and Grissom would be traded for each other before the start of the ‘95 season. Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine and McGriff would go on to be Hall of Famers while Lopez and Klesko both had solid careers.
Most importantly, the Atlanta Braves would win the 1995 World Series and with it bring the first championship of the four major sports leagues to Atlanta.
Between the 1991 worst-to-first season, the 1992 “Sid’s Slide” NLCS winning moment, the epic 1993 divisional race between the 104-win Braves and the 103-win San Fransico Giants, the 1995 World Series Championship and the 1996 World Series implosion against the Yankees, the 1994 Braves season is now largely a footnote season in Braves history.
But that somewhat forgotten 1994 team has its place in the team’s legendary end-of-the-century franchise turn-around with the season that was … but wasn’t.
