Braves close out June with record-setting power display in blowout win

ATLANTA -- A fitting end to a record-setting June brought the Braves to this season’s halfway point on pace to produce some ridiculous numbers.

Matt Olson enjoyed his latest two-homer game and the Braves tallied another five-run first inning on the way to increasing their National League East lead with a 16-4 win over the Marlins on Friday night. This marked the second straight Friday that both of these events occurred.

But as the Braves belted 61 homers in June, the most ever recorded by an NL team in any month, they proved capable of doing something special on any day of the week.

“It’s very fun to watch,” Braves starting pitcher Michael Soroka said. “It’s the best offense I’ve ever seen for sure.”

Soroka certainly picked a good night to return from the Minors, making his first home start since first tearing his right Achilles tendon on Aug. 3, 2020. Soroka stumbled during a three-run third, but went six innings to help the Braves finish June 21-4, matching the franchise record for most wins in a month.

The Braves’ 54 wins are their most through 81 games since the NL went to a 162-game schedule in 1962. The club’s previous best halfway win total was 52, reached in 1995, 1997 and 1998.

“You hope at the end of May, you’ve played enough that things are going to start happening that define your path,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You don’t sit there and think we’re going to do what we just did.”

That’s because few teams have ever had a month like this.

The Marlins lost ground in the NL East standings while going 19-8 in June. They now sit seven games behind the Braves, who are also 11 games in front of the third-place Phillies, who went 18-8 this past month.

“They're probably the best lineup in baseball one through nine and have Michael Harris [II] hitting ninth,” Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings said.

The 61 homers hit by the Braves this past month was the third highest monthly total in AL/NL history, trailing only the Yankees, who hit 74 in August 2019 and the Blue Jays, who hit 66 in September/October 2021. This year’s Rays also hit 61 homers in March/April.

The Braves bested the club record of 56, set in June of 2019. There have been just eight 50-plus home run months in franchise history. Two of those have come within the past two months.

“Up until this past month, we hadn’t really clicked together,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. “I think we’re doing that right now and it’s fun.”

Unfortunately for the Marlins, they have been on the wrong end of three of the eight five-homer games the Braves have tallied this year. No other MLB club entered Friday having hit at least five homers in more than three games this year.

Olson hit a team-high nine homers in June and now leads the NL with 28 homers, two behind Shohei Ohtani’s MLB lead. The Braves' first baseman finished a double shy of the cycle on Friday and exited the contest having hit .333 with 10 homers and a 1.000 OPS over 58 plate appearances going back to June 15.

That’s the date Snitker moved Olson out of the lineup’s second spot and began batting Ozzie Albies behind leadoff hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. The Braves have averaged 7.8 runs over the 13 games that have followed.

“You put Matt down there where he can knock runs in and that’s exactly what he’s been doing,” Snitker said. “I like our lineup a lot.”

Acuña got this latest victory started when he singled and scored in the first. The top MVP candidate has tallied 32 hits and scored 27 runs in the first inning. He is just six first-inning runs away from matching the franchise record Chipper Jones set in 1999.

Of course, to better understand his MVP resume, it’s best to point out he reached the halfway point with 37 stolen bases and 20 homers. He’s the first player to have 20-plus homers and 35-plus stolen bases before the All-Star break.

Olson’s 10 first-inning homers put him three shy of matching the record Hank Aaron set in 1971. Riley’s eight opening-frame homers also have him positioned to break Aaron’s mark.

The Braves have scored 81 first-inning runs through the season’s first 81 games. The 1999 club set the franchise record with 127 such runs and the 2000 Cardinals set the NL record by scoring 147 times in the opening frame.