The current status of the Atlanta Braves has me thinking about the Braves’ battle to win the National League Western Division title in 1982. That was the year the Braves won their first 13 games but found themselves three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers with just 10 games left to play.

The 2024 Atlanta Braves have 19 games remaining in the season. They enter action tonight in second place in the National League East, seven games behind the Philadelphia Phillies, so the chances of them winning their seventh consecutive division title are, as the great Muhammad Ali once said, “slim and none, and Slim just left town.” But they still have an excellent chance of getting to the postseason as one of the three wild-card teams in the NL. That’s a luxury the 1982 Braves did not have.

With 15 games left in the 1982 season, the Braves trailed the Dodgers by 3 ½ games and were on a four-game losing streak. The Braves snapped the streak with a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds and closed the gap to 2 ½ games when the Dodgers lost later that night. But the win was costly for the Braves. Slugging third baseman Bob Horner had to leave the game after hyperextending his right elbow in a run-down play. Horner was hitting .261 with 32 home runs and 97 runs batted in at the time of the injury.

Both the Dodgers and the Braves won their next games, but the Braves then lost their third in a row on a day when the Dodgers were idle, increasing the deficit to 3 games. Both teams lost their next two games, but the Braves went 7-3 in their last 10 games, while the Dodgers went 3-7.

On October 1, with the Braves clinging to a 1-game lead, Phil Niekro pitched a shutout against the San Diego Padres while the Dodgers were shutting out the San Francisco Giants. It was a remarkable game for Niekro. The 43-year-old right-hander allowed just three hits, walked none, and struck out eight. Glenn Hubbard walked leading off the top of the eighth inning, and Bruce Benedict sacrificed him to second. Remarkably, manager Joe Torre then allowed Niekro to hit for himself.

Can you imagine a pitcher batting for himself in that situation three years ago before the NL starting using the designated hitter? Niekro rewarded Torre’s confidence by blasting a two-run homer, and the Braves eventually won the game 4-0.

The Braves went into the season finale holding onto their 1-game lead, but they lost to the Padres, giving the Dodgers a chance to catch them and force a tie-breaker game to decide the division championship. But when Joe Morgan hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning in the Giants’ 5-2 win over the Dodgers, the Braves were headed to the postseason for the first time since 1969.

Niekro’s heroics stand out in my memory of the 1982 season, but perhaps Jerry Royster was the real hero for the Braves. After Horner went down with his injury, Royster took over at third base and hit .361 with a homer and six RBIs in the Braves’ final 14 games.

But much like the dog who finally catches the car he’s been chasing, the Braves didn’t seem to know what to do with their championship once they ran it down. They lost the National League Championship Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in three straight games.

I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to the Braves this year if they somehow wind up in the postseason.

(All game details and statistics are from Retrosheet.)