Braves, with best record in MLB, look destined for the World Series
By Britt Kelly | Sports writer
There is something special happening in Cobb County this summer.
The Atlanta Braves are looking like the kings of Major League Baseball in the 2023 season, and no team is even close to catching them. The Braves are selling out Truist Park every single night, and it is all thanks to the young core of exciting players that is propelling them to the top of the league. Atlanta went through a rough rebuilding phase through the 2010’s, however all of the suffering loyal Braves fans experienced is finally coming full circle.
This young and powerful team, who leads the Major Leagues in home runs with 200 on the dot is lead by the National League MVP frontrunner, Ronald Acuña. Acuña’s season has been nothing short of spectacular. He leads the team in almost every statistic, with a .333 average, 24 home runs, 61 runs batted in and 51 stolen bases. Acuña is on pace to finish with 39 home runs and 78 stolen bases. This start to a season has never happened in the history of baseball and Atlanta Braves fans get to witness it every night.
Along with Acuña are fellow all-stars Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Marcell Ozuna and Sean Murphy, who are all on pace for career best seasons. Olson had 37 homers through action on Aug. 2. Riley and Acuna were next with 25, followed by Albies with 24, Ozuna with 22 and Murphy with 17. Eddie Rosario has 16. As a team, the Braves had 206 home runs through play of Aug. 2. The record for a season is 307 by the Minnesota Twins in 2019.
This is the core that makes Atlanta shine every single night. They are all seasoned, though relatively young, players who are as dependable as it gets. When half of the team lineup is making MLB All-Star appearances, the fans know there is something special brewing that cannot be ignored.
Do not let the pitching staff be the unsung hero in this team’s success either. Brave pitchers have been outstanding all season. Spencer Strider, who pitched for the Augusta GreenJackets two years ago, is a National League Cy Young candidate with a 12-3 record and 208 strikeouts with less than 40 walks. Bryce Elder has been an up-and-coming star with an 8-2 record and ERA just over 3.00. Charlie Morton, though just 10-9, is a savvy veteran who brings experience to the staff.
All of these starters set up the bullpen perfectly. A.J. Minter, Raisel Iglesias, Joe Jimenez and Collin McHugh lock games down so the successful season can continue. And Max Fried will be back on the mound on Friday, Aug. 4, at Wrigley Field in Chicago against the Cubs. He’s suffered with an strained left forearm injury for a good chunk of the season.
As of Aug. 2,, the Braves led Major League Baseball with the best record at 69-37. Their lead in the National League East has grown to 11.5 games over the Philadelphia Phillies, the team that upended Atlanta in the playoffs lat year, and it doesn’t look like they will be caught anytime soon.
Atlanta wants to make another postseason run like the 2021 season, when they beat the Houston Astros in six games in the World Series. To do that however, they must continue on this current record setting pace.
Right now it looks like the Los Angeles Dodgers, the NL West leader, will be the team the Braves will to beat to get back to the World Series. There they would most likely face one of four teams: Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays or the Astros.
One thing is for sure: these Braves are way ahead of schedule than the 2021 Braves teams that won it all. There were only starting to get hot in early August that season after making several key trades at the deadline.
This time around, they will not have to be climbing as they did most of August and September in 2021—and as they did until the final regular-season series with the New York Mets last season. Rather, the Braves will coast and be preparing for the post-season from here on out.
They looked destined to be in the World Series again. Can they win Atlanta’s third, and the fifth in Braves’ history?
(Note: Britt Kelly, a senior communication major, is a pitcher on the Augusta Jaguars’ baseball team. He also appears regularly on The Sports Squad podcast, which is available on Spotify.)
