The Atlanta Braves winning streak is at eight, their longest of the season, and it ended a three-game sweep of Miami with an 11-3 finale that stopped being competitive early. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit two home runs. Matt Olson hit one more. One of Acuña's came with help he did not ask for.
That is the part of the box score that will not show up in the box score. The reporting on the game credits Miami's outfield defense with an assist on the first Acuña homer, a ball that got flubbed at the wall and turned into four bases. The scoring says home run. The eyes say something else. Acuña, for his part, cashed the gift and then went and got the second one on merit, which is more or less the whole scouting report on him.
How the Braves swept the Marlins
Eleven runs, three homers from the two guys you would name first if someone woke you up at 3 a.m. and asked who scares you in Atlanta's lineup. Sweeps in August have a way of looking bigger in the standings than they felt in the moment, and this one closed the book on the series with the Braves running away from a division rival that could not keep the ball in front of it.
Eight straight is a real number. It is a season best for this club, and season bests in the second week of August are usually the difference between a team that is playing out a schedule and a team that is playing for something. Right now Atlanta looks like the second thing.
Acuña's two-homer night, in context
checked the almanac: acuña is the only player in major league history to put up 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases in a season, the 41 and 73 he ran off in 2023 on the way to the NL MVP. one beat of wonder for that, and back to business.
Because the business is this: a two-homer night from Acuña changes the temperature of an entire dugout. Miami has spent the last three days finding that out.
Around the league Thursday night
It was a loud night on the wire. The Phillies got their fifth win in six games behind Cristopher Sanchez, who became the first 15-game winner in the majors this season. Boston and Chicago went 13 innings and more than four hours before Caleb Durbin lined a single to center off Erick Fedde to score Nick Sogard. The Twins found a run in the eighth on a Brooks Lee two-run single.
| Thursday's finals | Score | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Braves at Marlins | 11-3 ATL | 8th straight win, series sweep |
| Phillies vs Nationals | 7-3 PHI | Sanchez to 15 wins, 8 team doubles |
| Red Sox vs White Sox | 12-11 BOS | 13 innings, over four hours |
| Twins at Royals | 4-3 MIN | Lee two-run single in the 8th |
That Phillies line matters to everyone in the NL East for the obvious reason. The Braves are winning eight in a row and Philadelphia is not exactly cooperating.
What comes next for the Braves and Marlins
Atlanta goes to the Bronx to face the Yankees on Friday at 7:06 PM ET, which is the kind of trip that tells you what a streak is actually made of. Eight wins built partly on a division opponent's misplayed fly ball is a different animal from eight wins that survive a weekend in New York. I want to see whether the pitching travels.
Miami hosts the Angels on Friday at 7:11 PM ET, and the Marlins' assignment is simpler and harder at once: catch the ball. Getting swept is survivable. Getting swept while your outfield converts a fly ball into a souvenir is the kind of thing that follows a young defense around for a couple of weeks if nobody puts a stop to it.
What I'm watching next is Atlanta's ninth. Streaks are cheap until they run into a good team on the road.
