Atlanta Braves Rewrite Record Book With Steady Barrage Of Home Runs

If records are made to be broken, the Atlanta Braves are in great shape.

After slamming five home runs in a game Thursday, the team is on pace for 314 home runs, seven more than the record-holding 2019 Minnesota Twins.

Individually, Matt Olson is projected to finish with 54, three more than the 2005 club record of Andruw Jones, and is one of four teammates who have already topped 30.

Ozzie Albies, who has 29, would give the Braves five 30-homer men, tying another record owned by the ‘19 Twins. Atlanta already owns the Braves franchise record – including the years when the team was based in Boston and Milwaukee – of 270 home runs.

That’s a lot, since the runner-up Los Angeles Dodgers, who had 217 entering play Friday, are the only other team with more than 202.

Opponents can’t help but take notice.

None other than defending National League MVP Paul Goldschmidt says these Braves are the best-hitting team in generations.

“It might go down as the best offense in 100 years,” Goldschmidt told reporters before the Braves battered his Cardinals, 8-5, Thursday night in Atlanta’s Truist Park.

“They’re so consistent, they take their walks, they’re driving the ball. They don’t give away at-bats. Everything you want in a hitter, they almost all do it, and do it throughout the whole game.

“Definitely can put up what they’re doing against probably the top five offenses of all time. That’s very, very impressive.”

MVP favorite Ronald Acuna, Jr. homered on the first pitch thrown by veteran St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright, hit a second one later in the game, and reminded observers why he was the top vote-getter for the National League All-Star team.

The rifle-armed right-fielder, who added a new teammate to his personal life when he got married in Los Angeles last weekend, is the first player in baseball history with at least 30 home runs and 60 stolen bases in the same season.

With six more homers over the next four weeks, he would become the fifth member of the 40/40 club, joining Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Alfonso Soriano, and Alex Rodriguez.

Acuna was one of eight Braves on the National League All-Star team, along with Olson, Albies, Orlando Arcia, Austin Riley, Sean Murphy, Spencer Strider, and Bryce Elder. Michael Harris II, the 2002 National League Rookie of the Year, and Marcell Ozuna, the designated hitter, both have become hot hitters after dreadful starts in April.

So has Eddie Rosario, whose 20-homer campaign has proven last year’s vision problems are merely a bad memory. A diving catch by Rosario in left field Thursday night ended the game.

Thanks to strong seasons by Rosario and Murphy, the Gold Glove catcher who’s in his first year with the team, manager Brian Snitker has a record seven hitters with at least 20 home runs. Arcia, who needs four more, would be the eighth.

Every spot in the lineup is lethal, as the Braves proved earlier this week with home runs from the second, third, fourth, and fifth hitters in the same game.

When Acuna hit Wainwright’s first pitch over the wall Thursday, it gave the fleet Venezuelan 32 lifetime lead-off homers, a franchise record. Twelve have come on the first pitch.

Acuna also has his eyes on Otis Nixon’s club record for stolen bases; with 63 entering the weekend, he needs 10 more to veto Nixon’s name for the club’s record book.

As for Olson, in his second Atlanta season after replacing Freddie Freeman as the team’s first baseman, every home run he hits is a new personal peak, as he never hit 40 before. But he’s managed to reduce his strikeouts and connect more often this season – especially since Ozuna (who hit .085 in April) got hot after the All-Star break.

Olson homered in his fourth straight game Thursday, giving him 47 to lead the majors, and tying Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews for second place on the club list for a single season.

Aaron did it for the Atlanta Braves in 1971, while Mathews made his mark with the Milwaukee Braves in 1953.

Riley and Acuña are tied for sixth in the NL with 34 homers, while Ozuna has 33, giving the Braves half of the league’s top eight homer totals.

“It’s nice knowing that they can explode at any time,” said Max Fried, winning pitcher in the Thursday night game. “It makes it easier on me knowing that if I just keep pitching and hold it right there, there’s a good chance of pulling away.”

On the losing end, Wainwright tipped his cap to his opponent. “The home run to Acuña and the home run to Harris were balls that were about to be in the dirt,” said the 41-year-old Atlanta native. “They’re a very gifted team.”

In addition to the multiple team and individual power records within reach, the Braves have an outside shot at the franchise record for victories, 106 in 1998.

Certainly within reach is last year’s 101 wins, tied with the New York Mets for the most in the National League East. The team had 91 wins when the weekend started.

The Braves already own the record for the most consecutive division titles – 14 in a row from 1991-2005 – and are about a week away from clinching their sixth straight, the longest current streak in the majors. Their “magic number” as the weekend began was 10.

The Braves rank seventh in the majors with a payroll of $242,219,167, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, but manage their money well. All of their key position players, plus Strider, are signed to long-term deals and the team spent less money on free agency than any of the 30 big-league teams.

Players will make more money from post-season play, with the figures rising in direct proportion to the team’s success. The longer it lasts, the more they make.

With all that power on their side, the Braves just need to stay healthy as they try to recapture the world championship they won when they defeated the Houston Astros in 2021. They were eliminated early last year, losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series.