The Atlanta Braves were, without question, the best team in baseball during the month of June.
Where do we begin with what the Atlanta Braves did during their historic month of dominance?
Atlanta went an earth-shattering 21-4 in June, setting a franchise record for most wins in a month. The Braves have been around for nearly 150 years… Propelling them to new heights was the long ball. They hit 61 balls over the fence over the course of 30 days. This was the most amount of home runs any NL franchise has ever recorded in one month, including six on Friday.
As if that was not enough, right-hander Michael Soroka earned his first big-league win in 1,381 days. The last time he got the W, he was an emerging star in the Atlanta rotation back in 2019.
I have been a fan of this team pretty much out of the womb. At nearly 34 years old, I cannot remember a month of Braves baseball dominance quite like this. What a month of June it was!
Atlanta Braves just their completed the best month ever in franchise history
I may be biased, but this has a chance to be the best lineup I have seen since 1995 in Cleveland or 2001 in Seattle. The Braves continue to mash, making it a near-impossible task for opposing pitching staffs to navigate the batting order skipper Brian Snitker assembles. Leading the charge in the big-fly department this season for Atlanta are Ronald Acuña Jr. and an on-fire Matt Olson.
With his 20th blast of the season, Acuña became the first player ever to have 20 home runs and 35 stolen bases before the All-Star Game. There may be people in The Valley of the Sun who might feel differently, but he is your NL MVP at the halfway point. As for Olson, the only person in baseball who is putting balls into the seats at this clip is Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani.
Of course, there will come a point where the Braves will have to face adversity once again. It is bound to happen at some point, whether that be in July, August, September, or god forbid, in October.
For now, the Braves should be the favorite to come out of the NL, setting up for what could be a fantastic Fall Classic with AL East powerhouse Tampa Bay. We will get there when we get there.
As far as what could conceivably stop the Braves, the bullpen has been suspect at times and the starting rotation has yet to be truly solidified in the back-end. We should expect for general manager Alex Anthopoulos to potentially address both perceived weaknesses, most definitely the bullpen. Frankly, if Soroka can keep pitching like this, then that could solve the rotational issues.
Overall, you have to appreciate runs like this in your fandom. They don't happen very often, so do your best to enjoy them. I don't know if the Braves have already presented themselves as the future World Series champions, but only great teams are capable of what they just pulled off. 21-4 in a month, unbelievable! They are not going to be able to top it, but they have to get back to work.
Of the 50-something victories the Braves have at the halfway point, Friday night's is way up there.