ATLANTA — The Chicago Cubs came to Atlanta brimming with playoff hopes, and with their new leader Dansby Swanson comparing them to the 2018 Atlanta Braves team he was part of, the one that began their ongoing run of six consecutive NL East titles.
Then came a three-day reality check: The Braves flexed their considerable offensive muscle to overcome a 6-0 deficit and win the series opener, and erased three Cubs late-inning leads in a riveting 10-inning win Wednesday in what could simply be called “The Ronald Acuña Jr. Game.”
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In Thursday’s 5-3 sweep-completing victory, the Braves trailed 1-0 after the top of the first inning before flicking away the Cubs without much difficulty. Matt Olson hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first — his majors-leading 54th — to put the Braves ahead for good, while adding two more records to a growing inventory of individual and team marks over the season’s waning days.
“We played just like we were the ones fighting for that playoff spot,” said manager Brian Snitker, whose Braves improved their MLB-best record to 103-56 and clinched home-field advantage through the World Series. “I was very proud of them, they got after it. I wouldn’t expect anything less from this group. I mean, they love to compete, and I think they understand what was at stake right there. That was a good club coming in here, and we played really well for those three games.”
#Braves win 5-3 to sweep the Cubs and clinch home-field advantage through the World Series. Now, they just have to get there.
Got a majors-leading 54th homer from Matt Olson, who increased his majors-leading RBI total to 136 to break Eddie Mathews' franchise RBI record.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) September 29, 2023
One night after Acuña became the first player in MLB history to have at least 40 homers and 70 stolen bases in a season, Olson’s two-out homer off Marcus Stroman in the first inning Thursday gave him a franchise-record 136 RBIs, moving Olson past Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews’ mark of 135 in 1953.
Read more: Phillies-Braves 2.0: Ready for an NLDS rematch featuring baseball’s best rivalry
His homer erased the Cubs’ shortlived 1-0 lead, and Braves rookie starter AJ Smith-Shawver retired the last 10 batters he faced after giving up a leadoff walk to start the game and seeing 3-hole hitter Ian Happ reach on a fielder’s choice that brought in a run. Smith-Shawver, in his fifth and most impressive MLB start, worked 3 2/3 hitless innings with one walk and two strikeouts, firing 45 strikes in 64 pitches and topping out at 99.7 mph with his four-seam fastball, which averaged 96.5 mph, about 2 mph above his previous average in his MLB starts.
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“I told him after he came out, I said, ‘Man, you’re getting better,’” Snitker said. “There’s just so much upside to that guy. I’ve seen the growth just from when he’s been here in the beginning until now. You look at him and that’s what they look like. I mean, just a big, strong, athletic guy, and the feel for the pitches is getting better, everything. There’s just tremendous upside for this young man.”
Smith-Shawver, still just 20 years old, said he had a “breakthrough” working on his mechanics in recent starts in Triple A.
“I definitely have gained a lot of confidence,” he said. “And I mean, this team is definitely not a bad team to have behind you to give you that confidence. They’re breaking records every time they swing the bat nowadays. It’s kind of crazy to watch that.”
Olson already surpassed Andruw Jones’ franchise homer record — 51 in 2005 — and now has the third-most homers by an NL player in the past 20 years, behind only Giancarlo Stanton’s career-high 59 in an MVP season with the Miami Marlins in 2017 and Ryan Howard’s 58 for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006, when he, too, was NL MVP.
Of setting the franchise records for homers and RBI in the same season, Olson said, “I think when you’re in the middle of the season, you don’t really think about it too much, you just carry on. But maybe get into the offseason and enjoy a beer over it.”
But Snitker certainly has a perspective on the accomplishment. He’s spent 4 1/2 decades in the Braves organization and was a close friend of the late, legendary Hank Aaron.
“You’re talking about some big-time, Hall of Fame players who’ve played here over the years,” Snitker said. “And some really, really big-time guys that came through here just for a couple of years at a time. That’s quite an accomplishment. You’re talking about Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron. Chipper (Jones), Andruw, Javy (Lopez). There’s some heavy hitters — Gary Sheffield — that put on this uniform and played here. So, I think it’s phenomenal.”
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Olson figures to finish in the top three or four in MVP balloting, with Acuña the likely favorite now, ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts. Olson, with a 19-RBI lead over the next-highest MLB total and only three games to play, is poised to join Aaron as the only Braves player ever to lead the majors in RBIs. Aaron did it four times, in 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1966, the team’s first season in Atlanta after moving from Milwaukee.
Olson’s homer also was the 47th first-inning homer for the Braves, breaking an MLB single-season record of 46 by the Cincinnati Reds in 2019. That was the year the Twins set the team record with 307 homers overall, which the Braves are only four homers from surpassing.
But Olson reiterated that records aren’t something he and the Braves are focused on.
“Talking about Ronald, we might never see 40-70 again, but you show up and he plays the same every day,” Olson said. “Obviously he’s doing spectacular things, but you watch Ronald play and you look up and it’s like, ‘Oh, crap, he’s done something that’s never been done in history.’ I think when you’re fully in it, you don’t necessarily have a chance to fully appreciate it.”
The Braves have a three-game weekend series against the Washington Nationals starting Friday, and a sweep would give them 106 wins to tie the franchise record set in 1998. They have a first-round postseason bye and will have five days to wait before they begin postseason play with a division series starting a week from Saturday.
They will play intrasquad games Tuesday through Thursday open to the public at Truist Park, then have a workout Friday. The Braves hope by playing intrasquad games, they can better avoid coming out flat the way they did in the division series a year ago against the Phillies, who were coming off a wild-card series win while the Braves had a first-round bye. Philadelphia beat them 3-1 in that series.
The Braves offense is a juggernaut, but the pitching is a concern, with two of their top three starters — ace Max Fried and playoff-seasoned veteran Charlie Morton — on the 15-day injured list with index finger issues. Fried is expected back for the division series, joining Spencer Strider to give the Braves a formidable 1-2 starting duo, but the third spot is a major question mark.
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What the Braves have in abundance is offense. They feature one of the most prolific, homer-happy lineups in baseball history. They have an absurd 59 more homers than the next-highest MLB total this season (the Dodgers, with 245). That’s in sharp contrast to 2019 — widely considered a “juiced ball” season when harder baseballs were used — when the New York Yankees had 306 homers, one less than the Twins’ record total.
No other team in MLB history hit 300 homers until these Braves, a Statcast smorgasbord of a team with their soaring hard-hit rates and home-run distances. They have five players with 33 or more homers including four of the NL’s top seven individual totals in Olson, Acuña (41), Marcell Ozuna (37) and Austin Riley (37). Ozzie Albies (33) is tied for 11th in the NL.
The Braves lead the majors in most major offensive categories including runs, hits, homers, RBIs, on-base percentage and OPS, and are on pace to become the first team in history to have a .500 or better slugging percentage for a full season.
“That’s a historically good offense,” said Jed Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations. “I was looking at the stats the other day. They might slug .500, which is like mindblowing as a team, especially in today’s day and age. The ’03 Red Sox, I think we ended up at like .491. Our No. 9 hitter hit 25 homers. Our eighth hitter won the batting title. I look back on that, there is something really comforting (when) you’re down 5-1 and you’re like, ‘Eh, OK.’ You know it’s pretty easy to come back.
“What they’ve done, what (Braves president of baseball operations and GM Alex Anthopoulos) has done here, is remarkable. They got a great team. It’s an intimidating lineup. They’re not a veteran team, so to speak, but they have a lot of experience and they hit a lot of homers. They come to play every day. That lineup is as stable as any lineup in baseball. There’s no days off. They’re running the same guys out there and they’re kind of doing the same thing day in and day out. It’s impressive. What they’ve built here is really impressive.”
Olson’s 54 homers are eight more than the next-highest total this season, 46 apiece for the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso and the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber. Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani (44) is the only American Leaguer with as many as 40.
“Whenever I see a great team like this (Braves), I actually look at it as inspirational,” Hoyer said. “It’s like, OK, that’s the standard. That’s the best team in baseball right now.”
(Photo of Matt Olson: Brett Davis / USA Today)
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