ATLANTA — The Braves have been doing some things this season unprecedented in franchise history, and they added to the list Sunday when five more of their players were selected to the National League All-Star team, making it a franchise-record eight All-Stars from this year’s Atlanta squad.
First baseman Matt Olson, second baseman Ozzie Albies and third baseman Austin Riley were added as All-Star reserves, along with pitchers Bryce Elder and Spencer Strider. They joined three Braves who already were elected by fans to the NL starting lineup: right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., catcher Sean Murphy and shortstop Orlando Arcia.
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Eight All-Stars is the most from any team since the 2012 Texas Rangers had eight.
“Just to have eight guys was really something special for the organization,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
It’s the first time the Braves have had six position players make the All-Star team and the first time their entire infield made it. That was particularly meaningful given the fondness and reverence that everyone in the organization has for 70-year-old infield coach Ron Washington.
“Wash said it’s probably the most emotional day of his career,” Albies said, “because all of his infielders are going to the All-Star Game. It’s very special for our team to have eight guys. That says a lot. We’ve been playing hard every single day.”
Snitker smiled and said: “I just wish I was managing the game so I could make sure those guys all played together. For the organization, scouting, player development, Alex (Anthopoulos) and his (front-office) team — it’s just a credit to the whole organization.”
We’re bringing EIGHT to Seattle! ⭐️
This is the most in a single season in franchise history. It’s also the first time ever that our entire infield has been selected.#ForTheA pic.twitter.com/kRG1I8YDo5
— AtBraves ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Braves) July 2, 2023
On Sunday, Arcia, Albies and Travis d’Arnaud hit home runs for the Braves in a 6-3 win to complete a series sweep against the Marlins at Truist Park — which was sold out for the 30th time this season. Atlanta extended its winning streak to eight games, won for the 23rd time in 26 games and improved to 56-27, best in the majors and two wins more than its previous franchise best after 83 games.
The Braves are 9-1 against Miami and stretched their NL East lead to nine games over the second-place Marlins, who are 47-28 against everyone else.
“The run we’ve been on, it’s not surprising to anybody” within the team, said Strider, who had had nine strikeouts with one walk in 6 2/3 innings and was charged with six hits and three runs (two earned). “It’s what’s expected. We don’t get too high, we don’t get too low. And consequently, we’ve got a lot of guys that are really doing what they’re capable of, and that’s a very high ceiling.
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“It’s awesome to see this many guys going (to the All-Star Game), and it’s going to be fun for us to be together out there.”
The Braves are 15-2 in Strider’s starts, and he’s 10-2 with a 3.66 ERA and 155 strikeouts in 98 1/3 innings. Toronto’s Kevin Gausman (146) is the only other pitcher with as many as 130 strikeouts.
Nearly one-third of the Braves’ major-league roster is on the NL All-Star team. None of the five Braves added Sunday was a real surprise, considering Elder has the majors’ second-lowest ERA for starters (2.44) and Olson, Albies and Riley are such big contributors to the NL’s best offense.
The eight Braves All-Stars topped the previous franchise high of seven in both 2003 and 1997.
“That’s the one meeting I always look forward to,” Snitker said of a team meeting Sunday morning, when he informed the Braves’ All-Star reserves and pitchers. “To tell those guys — when I went in with that big stack of invitations and told them, that was pretty special. That was probably the best one that I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve been a part of some really cool things.”
Riley and Acuña are the Braves’ only repeat selections from last year when Atlanta had six All-Stars, including d’Arnaud and William Contreras (who made the team as a DH), shortstop Dansby Swanson and pitcher Max Fried.
Arcia, Murphy, Strider and Elder are first-time All-Stars. Four Braves — d’Arnaud, Riley, Swanson and Contreras — were first-timers last summer.
“It’s special to see, especially (two first-time All-Stars) are both starting,” d’Arnaud said. “In their first one, that’s going to be wild, man — starting. I’m so happy for them.”
For a franchise with a rich pitching pedigree, it might come as a surprise that this is the first time Atlanta has two starting pitchers on an All-Star team since 2000, when Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine made the team. John Smoltz and Glavine were All-Stars in 2001 and Smoltz and Russ Ortiz in 2002, but in each of those seasons Smoltz was a closer, not a starting pitcher.
Strider broke records with his soaring strikeout totals as a rookie in 2022, so his performance this season hasn’t been a surprise. But Elder went to spring training competing for the fifth starter job and got optioned to the minors in mid-March.
“I didn’t get that fifth spot that I wanted, but I felt good about where I was at with my stuff,” Elder said, “and I just tried to keep going, play the long game, and it ended up working. We’ve got a long way to go, so we’ve got to stay at it.”
Elder went from Opening Day starter at Gwinnett three months ago to 6-1 with a 2.44 ERA in 16 starts and an NL All-Star.
“This year is kind of hard to put into words,” said Elder, 24, a fifth-round pick in the same 2020 draft that brought Strider and Jared Shuster to the Braves. “I really enjoy spending time with a lot of these guys up here, Strider being one of them. I think we’ve got something special going. The guys behind me, I can’t thank them enough. Like I said the other day, Spencer is striking a lot of guys out; I’m not striking a lot of guys out. These guys are putting the ball in play, and the guys behind me, what they do — I wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for them.
“So I thank those guys and thank (catchers) Travis and Murph for how committed they are to helping us. I’m just really thankful for the people around that have allowed me to have the success.”
Olson said of Elder’s election to the All-Star team by the players’ vote: “I think it’s very good of the voting system, and of Bryce and the way he works, to get that recognition that he absolutely deserves. Some things fall through and he comes up this year, and I mean, he hasn’t looked back. I love that he was ready for the opportunity, and if you look at his ERA, he’s been one of the best pitchers in the NL since he’s been here.”
It’s ironic that the Braves’ drought of more than two decades without two All-Star starting pitchers would end in the season when Fried and Kyle Wright, last year’s only MLB 20-game winner, are both on the 60-day injured list. Fried and Wright made only five starts apiece before each went on the IL in the first week of May. They hope to have Fried back by early August and Wright by September.
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“I think when those two went down, I don’t think anybody thought we’d be in the position that we’re in,” d’Arnaud said. “So it shows the depth we have, the preparation for game-calling that we make and just the next-man-up attitude — it’s pretty rare and pretty special.”
The Braves were 22-11 on May 5 after Fried’s last start and had a five-game lead in the NL East. Wright’s last start was May 3.
Since May 5, they are 34-16. They hoped to maintain a division lead while Fried and Wright were out, but instead, they’ve opened the largest division lead in the majors.
“We’ve been just winning series left and right,” d’Arnaud said, laughing. “It’s been pretty cool.”
Despite the absences of Fried and Wright and key left-hander Dylan Lee from the bullpen since mid-May, the Braves have maintained a 3.66 overall ERA and a 3.78 ERA for starting pitchers, both tops in the NL. That’s while getting 17 starts from rookies Shuster, Dylan Dodd and AJ Smith-Shawver, none with any previous major-league experience.
Each of those rookies, as well as the Braves’ more experienced starters, has cited the team’s supercharged offense as a factor in helping them relax and be aggressive in the strike zone, knowing Atlanta hitters are likely to score plenty in a game — and often in the first inning.
“It’s unbelievable what our offense is capable of doing,” said Strider, who watched the Braves score 11 total runs in the first innings Friday and Saturday against the Marlins. “Today, we fall behind and I know if I can just keep us in the game long enough, we’re going to come through, and we did. It’s a testament to the guys in here, just to how easy it is to pitch with them behind me. I don’t have to be perfect, I just have to go out there and get as many outs as I can and limit damage, and they’re going to come alive at some point. They always have so far.”
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In June, the Braves set a National League record for any calendar month with 61 home runs — and they are on pace for a record 308 homers. The MLB record is 307 by the 2019 Minnesota Twins. Eight Braves had five or more homers in June, including Olson’s 11, tops in the majors.
They had 14 more homers and 22 more runs than any other MLB team in June, and that prolific power hitting and scoring by the Braves was the biggest reason they had a majors-best 21-4 record for the month despite a modest 3.87 ERA that was tied for 12th in the majors.
“It’s been wild,” said d’Arnaud, who had five homers and 11 RBIs in 55 at-bats in June. “The cool thing about it, too, if somebody does have an off day, somebody else is in there just doing what (the other player) did the day before.”
The Braves have been especially proficient at scoring early this season. Their first-inning totals of 87 runs, 29 homers and 124 hits were the most in each of those categories for any team in any inning this season. In the first two games of the series against the Marlins, the Braves scored five runs in the first inning Friday and six in the first inning Saturday, on the way to 16-4 and 7-0 routs.
Veteran Braves pitcher Charlie Morton said he’s never seen anything like this offensive binge the Braves have been on, particularly the first-inning production.
“I don’t think I have, either,” d’Arnaud said. “For this long. It’s been pretty crazy. Last year we had a run like this, but I don’t think it was like this, where we beat people by so much, so often.”
Morton said Braves hitters have done things recently that he’s never seen in his 16-year career — and he was part of World Series championship teams with Houston in 2017 and Atlanta in 2021.
“And I honestly don’t think that they know what they’re doing,” he said, complimenting the Braves’ youthful exuberance. “I don’t think they realize how good they are. Which is awesome because I think there’s a lot of people that are trying to put it in perspective and quantify what’s going on. But the guys in that room, I really don’t think that they know what’s going on.
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“I just think they’re like, ‘We’re pros, we’re good dudes, we care about each other, and we go out and play.’ That’s what I’m seeing. They’re all pulling for each other, they’re all supportive of each other, they’re extremely positive and relaxed. They’re really humble, for how good they are. So for me to be in that clubhouse, I feel so spoiled. It’s kind of surreal, actually. Such a good group of dudes that are so good.”
(Photo of Spencer Strider pitching against the Marlins on Sunday: Dale Zanine / USA Today)
