Here they were at the World Series, taking their customary position as October bridesmaids, and no, it doesn't get any easier to accept the losses when you've been disappointed so many times before.

	Braves coach Don Baylor, pitcher John Smoltz and infielders Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko watch their title hopes slip away Wednesday.

"Not at this moment," general manager John Schuerholz said. "This is pretty painful."

"It's not very much fun losing four in a row," said a rueful Bobby Cox, who watched his team lose its fourth World Series in five tries this decade, swept out by the New York Yankees, 4-1 in Game 4.

"I admire a lot of the players on this team for really bearing down," continued Cox. "You know, we got this far. We would have liked to have done a little better."

No team won more games in the 1990s than the Braves. No team won more division titles, or pennants either, for that matter. But when it came to winning the final four of the season, the Braves usually stumbled.

History may well look back on the Braves and use Cox's words as their epitaph: "We would have liked to have done a little better." Indeed.

The Braves had their most consistent postseason pitcher on the mound for Game 4, and John Smoltz didn't disappoint. He logged seven innings, allowing six hits and three runs while striking out 11.

All three of the Yankees' runs off him came in the third when first baseman Ryan Klesko had a bouncer clang off his glove as two runs scored. A third run scored on Jorge Posada's RBI single.

A DECADE OF SO CLOSE ...

The Braves won eight division titles and played in five World Series during the decade. One World Series title may not be enough to secure a lofty place in baseball history. "That's unfair," Chipper Jones said in protest. "When you look at our organization, you can only call it a success." Here are some key moments in the years they let the Big One get away: 1991: Lonnie Smith stops running and Minnesota wins Game 7 in the 10th inning. Smith was at first when Terry Pendleton doubled with no outs. Smith lost track of the ball (with help from Chuck Knoblauch's phantom tag) and had to stop at third. Jack Morris pitched out of the inning. 1992: The Braves were on the verge of going up 2-0 against the Blue Jays when pinch-hitter Ed Sprague homered in the ninth against ancient Jeff Reardon. The Blue Jays went on claim the title in six games. 1993: Against the Phillies in the NLCS, the series is tied two games apiece. The Braves score three in the ninth to tie Game 5 buy Lenny Dykstra homers off Mark Wohlers in the 10th. The Phillies beat Greg Maddux in Game 6. 1996: The Braves lead the Yankees 6-3 in the eighth inning, on the brink of taking a 3-1 Series lead. Jim Leyritz smacks a three-run homer off Wohlers to tie the game and the Yankees win it in the 10th. 1997: The NLCS with the Marlins is locked up at 2-2. In Game 5, Livan Hernandez fans 15 in a 2-1 victory. On the final pitch, umpire Eric Gregg calls Fred McGriff out on a pitch at least a foot outside. 1998: The Padres score five runs in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the NLCS to win 5-0. The inning breaks open when left fielder Danny Bautista drops a line drive hit by pitcher Sterling Hitchcock.

Other than that, Smoltz was magnificient. With runners on first and second and no outs in the third, he struck out the entire lower third of the New York batting order to strand two. After Posada's run-scoring single, he retired 10 in a row and 13 of the final 14 Yankees he faced.

Once again, pitching was hardly the Braves' problem in the World Series.

"Smoltz, (Tom) Glavine and (Greg) Maddux all brought their 'A' games," said pitching coach Leo Mazzone. "But so did El Duque, (Roger) Clemens and (David) Cone, so you have to go to other areas (to determine why we lost)."

In the aftermath of the loss, the Braves couldn't help but wonder how different it might have been for them had they had a full complement of players. Even before the season began, they lost Andres Galarraga and Kerry Ligtenberg; in midseason, catcher Javy Lopez was lost for the rest of the way.

"We know we were missing some great players," said Schuerholz. "But I think that's part of baseball."

In the end, there was no escaping the Braves' inability to score runs. In the first six innings of the four games played, they totaled a mere six runs. Armed with early leads, the Yankees became even tougher to beat.

When they needed breaks, the Braves never got them. Homers by the Yankees reached the seats by inches. What would have been a game-tying double by Chipper Jones in the eighth inning of Game 4 was foul by inches.

But the Braves were proffering no excuses, and managed to credit the Yankees for creating their own good luck.

"We would have liked to have played better," said Jones, "but we were playing a pretty good team."

"A lot of how we played," concluded Schuerholz, "has a lot to do with how they played."

Still, the Braves sounded undaunted. After all the disappointment, they sounded ready to reload again.

"Without giving it a lot of thought," said Schuerholz, "I'd say we're fairly well positioned to make another run at it again next season."

Galarraga is expected to make a full recovery, as is Lopez. The unmatched starting rotation will return, as will the Joneses -- Chipper and Andruw -- and Brian Jordan.

That's not a bad starting point. But just once, the Braves would like to figure out a way to change the ending.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal-Bulletin covers the American League for ESPN.com.