The New York Mets played their first-ever game at SunTrust Park last night, a great sign for the team who have had plenty of struggles whenever they played the Atlanta Braves at home.

This will be an important series for the Mets, and for their sake, they better hope their luck at SunTrust Park will be better than it was at Turner Field.

For the better part of two decades, it seemed as though nothing ever went right for the Mets at Turner Field. They posted a 67-106 regular-season record there; their .387 winning percentage at Turner Field is the third-worst winning percentage the Mets have in any ballpark they’ve played at least 100 games in. The Astrodome takes the second-worst spot at a .386 clip, followed by the Polo Grounds– the Mets’ home ballpark in 1962 and 1963. They posted a .348 winning percentage at the Polo Grounds.

That .386 winning percentage doesn’t even do justice how bad the Mets were there at their peak of their suckitude at Turner Field. They were 20-51 there from 1997-2005– making for a solid .282 winning percentage. The Mets had some brief success there from 2006-2007, going 11-7 at Turner shortly after the Braves’ division titles streak ended.

But the struggles came right back, and the Mets went 1-8 there in 2008. They were 14-31 there from 2008-2012, amounting to a .311 winning percentage. All and all, the Mets had a 45-89 record at Turner from 1997-2012.

Recently though, the Mets were able to reverse their Turner Field aversion, playing far better there than they ever had at that stadium. The Amazins were 22-17 at Turner Field from 2013 on, including a 7-3 mark last season. This is probably mostly attributed to the Braves’ recent dry spell, but any Mets fan who saw the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz trio rip the Mets apart at that place in the 90s will gladly take any success at Turner Field.

Despite the Mets’ play at Turner Field, the team actually played fairly well at the Braves’ original Atlanta ballpark, Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium. They were 90-100 there. The Mets will gladly take something like this at SunTrust Park– especially after what they’ve had to go through at Turner Field.

So maybe last night was a sign of better days to come. So far, so good. LGM