Do the Atlanta Braves have an advantage by playing in Houston?

The Atlanta Braves finally won a playoff series again and advanced to the 2020 NLDS.

The absolutely stunning thing is the Atlanta Braves have to play the Miami Marlins now. No one saw this coming a few short months ago; and in turn, one of two things are about to happen:

• Either the Miami Marlins are going to lose their first-ever playoff series — and it will come at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, or…
• The Miami Marlins are going to actually be in the final 4 teams of the 2020 MLB season.

Obviously the 2020 season has been unlike we have ever seen and hopefully we will never see anything like it again.

The reward for these two teams making it this far? You get to go into a “bubble” in Houston and be secluded in a hotel unless you are at the field playing baseball.

Yes, despite watch parties being held at Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves will not have home field advantage in this playoff series.

However, that does not entirely mean they will not have an advantage over those pesky Miami Marlins.

Minute Maid Park has seen tons of postseason action over the last couple of seasons including multiple World Series over the last few years. It’s very possible we see some more home run balls (exploding) over the train tracks atop the left-field wall.

Perhaps the Atlanta Braves will have access to cameras and trash cans as they will be using the Houston Astro’s home clubhouse in the stadium?

Just kidding, the Atlanta Braves can do this the right way.

Rain will not be a factor as the stadium has a retractable roof.

As with most modern-day stadiums, Houston does not have a ton of foul room at all down the lines as the stands are inches away from the playing field, so there is that — which is fairly consistent with Truist Park.

Centerfield is still deep, but it is nowhere near as deep as it was when Andruw Jones about broke his neck on Tal’s hill back in the early 2000’s.

While we are on that, who in the world thought it was a good idea to have a light pole and a hill on the field of play?

Right field has about the same dimension’s as our park, but the wall is significantly lower so the lefties should have an easier time trying to knock the ball out of the park.

Where I think the park benefits the Atlanta Braves most is the famous “Crawford boxes” in left field though.

It does not take a monster fly ball to be a home run in left in Houston. It is no secret the Atlanta Braves have more power than that Miami Marlins (especially since Starling Marte has been ruled out now) so I see the Atlanta Braves hitting a couple more home runs there than the Marlins.

Dimensions

• LF Corner:  315 ft (335 in Truist Park)
• Left Center:  abruptly juts out to 362 (385 in Truist).  The LF wall in Minute Paid Park is 19 feet, however  — more than double the height in Atlanta.
• CF:  409 (vs. 400 at Truist)
• Right center/RF – almost identical, but the wall is substantially lower in Houston (16 feet at Truist)

Adam Duvall, Dansby Swanson, Marcell Ozuna, Ronald Acuna, and Travis d’Arnaud will just have to hit a normal deep fly to left and in Houston, it might sneak out?

We also know how good Freddie Freeman is at going the other way as well.

Hopefully, the Atlanta Braves reverse what happened the last time they played a playoff series in this stadium.

Also hopefully: the Atlanta Braves put away the fish for good this time.