It’ll be hard, but I believe in them (or really, in the cosmic punishment they are enduring)
Well, the Braves are now 11-23 in one-run games. As bad as that is, it’s somehow not the worst in MLB, because the White Sox are 7-21. It’s also going to be hard for the Braves to get “ahead” of the White Sox, because they’d need to lose another ten one-run games without a victory to rival that .250 winning percentage from Chicago’s South Side right now. Of course, the White Sox could win some one-run games, but why assume anyone’s going to help the Braves out in any respect right now?
In any case, do you think the Braves can do it? Really, what they need to do is lose three one-run games to the White Sox later this season. That’ll really help.
The 2023 Padres went 9-23 in one-run games, and the 2021 Diamondbacks were 10-31. The Braves probably won’t get there, but maybe.
The last time the Braves had a season where they were the league’s worst in one-run games was 2008, when they went 11-30. That was actually somewhat of an odd mark; looking back at the arc of team one-run game records, it’s been far more common to have an egregiously bad mark like that in the last few seasons compared to the 10-15 years before that. So, the Braves might “top” their 2008 selves and not the 2025 White Sox; we’ll see. (The 2006 Braves were also worst in the league with a 19-33 record, but that record is a lot more reflective of the worst one-run game record in most years pre-2020 than the 2008 one.)
Also, in 2003, the Braves won 101 games despite being 17-25 in one-run games. They were the only playoff team that year that lost more one-run games than they won.