The Atlanta Braves are doing their best to keep up in the NL playoff picture. And they have done so with a serious power surge that has already reached historic levels, with the long ball being the main story of their game yet again in their 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Thursday night. In fact, the Braves scored all four of those runs courtesy of three homers — one each from Austin Riley, Matt Olson, and Orlando Arcia.
This is a continuation of the historic home run binge the Braves have been on over their past seven games. With three home runs on Thursday, they have now tallied 21 long balls over their last seven games, comprising 38.9 percent of their total hits (54) during that span. According to OptaSTATS, that is “the highest percentage of a team's hits being home runs over a seven-game span in MLB history (min. 50 hits)”.
The Braves have uncharacteristically struggled to score in 2024; they rank 12th in the NL in total runs scored, and they average just 4.25 runs per game thus far this season — a far cry from their output in 2023 when they scored 5.75 runs per contest.
Perhaps this home run binge awakens them just in time for the stretch run ahead. Currently, they are in pole position in the NL Wild Card race with a 1.5-game cushion, and they will have to string together more of these games so they could give their rock-solid pitching staff the run support that they need to succeed.
Braves flex their home run muscle
One of the main culprits behind the Braves' collective down season at the plate has been the absence of Ronald Acuna Jr. and Michael Harris II. Those two played starring roles last year in the Braves outfield, with Acuna even putting up a historically great season at the plate. With those two on the mend, the Braves' supporting cast has had to step out, and they have done so impressively as of late.
Matt Olson, in particular, has been playing very well as of late. After struggling for much of 2024, Olson has woken up. He has hit five home runs in the Braves' past seven games, leading the way for his team's home run binge.
Olson, clearly, has not been alone in smacking the ball hard. Marcell Ozuna and Orlando Arcia each have three homers during that span, Travis d'Arnaud, Austin Riley, and Adam Duvall have each hit two long balls, while Eddie Rosario, Ramon Laureano, Sean Murphy, and Jarred Kelenic have each homered once.
The Braves, however, may have to find more ways to put more runs on the board so that their offense won't drop off when their home run rate normalizes.
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