Murphy sixth member of Braves' 15-plus homer club  

CLEVELAND -- Maybe just to prove they carry more than just one club in their bag, the Braves constructed a four-run first inning on Wednesday night without hitting a home run.

But this year’s kings of the long ball ended up adding a couple homers to their historic pace during an 8-1 win over the Guardians in the rubber game of the series at Progressive Field.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can drive the ball out of the yard,” first baseman Matt Olson said. “I don’t think we’re dependent on [the home run].”

Olson is right. The Braves tallied five hits, including four singles, during the first-inning uprising that helped them avoid what would have been just their second back-to-back loss since the start of June.

But that one inning didn’t change this team’s DNA. Olson, Sean Murphy and Austin Riley each went deep for the Braves, who have hit at least three homers in 26 of 86 (30.2 percent) of their games this season.

No other team entered Wednesday with more than 21 three-homer games.

So, it’s safe to say the long ball remains the primary weapon of the Braves, who have gained MLB’s best record while winning 10 straight series since the start of June. Atlanta hasn’t lost a series since late May, when it dropped two of three to the A’s, who are on pace to lose 100-plus games.

Some of the events of a 162-game season are hard to predict. But when the Braves are playing, you can expect to see a couple balls leave the yard. They have now homered in 23 straight games. This is MLB’s longest streak of the season, besting the 22-game streak the Rays constructed to start the 2023 campaign.

“It’s great, but there’s another game tomorrow,” Murphy said. “So, we can’t think about the home runs we hit today or what we’ve been doing.”

Murphy finished a triple shy of the cycle. He tallied a RBI single in the first and then highlighted a season-high four-hit performance with a third-inning solo shot. The All-Star catcher joined Javy Lopez (1999 and 2003) as the only catchers in Braves history to have 15-plus homers and 50-plus RBIs through the team’s first 86 games.

“God that’s an unbelievable trade,” manager Brian Snitker said of the offseason three-team deal that brought Murphy to Atlanta. “To get a guy of that caliber with all of the tools and physical skills that guy possesses, he’s been huge for us.”

Murphy’s line-drive home run over the left-field wall made him the sixth Braves player with at least 15 homers this season. No other MLB club entered Wednesday with more than three players having reached this total.

The Braves have a chance to join the 2019 Twins as the only teams in AL/NL history to have five players hit at least 30 homers. Eddie Rosario, who was one of those five Minnesota players, is one homer shy of becoming the seventh Atlanta player to reach 15 homers this season.

Olson hit his NL-leading 29th homer in the ninth inning, long after Michael Soroka had battled inconsistent command, but still managed to keep the Guardians scoreless over 4 2/3 innings.

The Braves have now gone 7-0 in rubber games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, they are the first team to have at least 57 wins and still be undefeated in rubber games since the 1994 Expos won nine straight.

Fueling Atlanta has been its record-setting power. The Braves have hit 166 homers, which is 30 more than any other MLB club. This puts them on pace to hit 312, which would best the MLB record of 307, set by the 2019 Twins.