The Atlanta Braves are on top of the world right now after finishing a 4-game sweep over the Pittsburgh Pirates, their 3rd straight series sweep.
After a dominant 7th inning yesterday afternoon leading the Braves to their 10th straight win, the Atlanta Braves looked to the red hot offense and starter Kyle Wright to continue his great season en route to win number 11. They did just that Sunday afternoon, utilizing the long ball to extend the winning streak and finish the sweep.
The Braves were first to strike with monstrous back-to-back home runs from William Contreras and Adam Duvall, whom both continued their great hitting Sunday afternoon. The towering home run by William Contreras which hit the left field foul pole was his 9th home run of the year, which ties him for the 2nd most home runs by all MLB catchers, despite Contreras having roughly half the plate appearances as most other catchers on the list.
Kyle Wright started the game off easy before running into some trouble in the top of the third. After giving up a double and a walk, Wright was able to end the inning, but not before giving up an RBI sac fly to Bryan Reynolds, cutting the Braves lead in half.
Both offenses remained quietly until the 4th inning where Contreras and Duvall continued their assault on Pirates starting pitcher Jose Quintana. With 1 out in the 4th inning, Contreras got his 2nd knock of the day with a double to deep right field. Duvall followed with a 2-run homerun to right field, his 2nd of the day.
With 2 home runs on the day, Adam Duvall brought his home run total to 4 homeruns in the past 7 games. If Duvall, who has struggled at the plate for most of the 2022 season, can get the bat going, the rest of the league should be on alert for the Atlanta offense.
The Pirates did not take long to answer, with Bryan Reynolds knocking a 2-run homerun to right field, continuing his attack on the Braves pitching over this 4-game series.
Kyle Wright would throw one more inning getting the Pirates 4-5-6 hitters to go three up three down in the 6th inning. Yet another solid start from Kyle Wright, allowing 3 ER over 6 innings with 7 strikeouts, though one I’m sure Kyle wish he could have performed better in.
Will Smith came in the 7th and pitched a fantastic inning, throwing only 9 pitches and striking out one, followed by A.J. Minter in the 8th who continued his incredible 2022 season with another scoreless inning. Minter was also able to show off his pick off move catching Bryan Reynolds trying to steal second, a pretty satisfactory way to end Reynold’s series against the Braves.
The Braves offense wasn’t done quite yet. After going down 0-2 in the count, Braves first baseman Matt Olson was able to work the count back to 3-2 before golfing a low fast ball to dead center field for a solo homerun, extending the Braves lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th.
Braves closer Kenley Jansen came into finish the game, getting a quick 3 outs after giving up a leadoff single, giving him his 18th save of the season.
The Braves finished their third straight series sweep and continued their fantastic month of June with some of the most well-rounded team play the Braves have seen all season. Atlanta now sits at 2nd in the NL East only 5 games behind the Mets, a stark contrast to the 11.5 games they sat behind the Mets just a few weeks ago.
Atlanta will travel to Washington to start a 3-game series against the Nationals starting Monday. Ian Anderson is slated to duel against Josiah Gray which should be a fun matchup between two young pitchers. Braves look to extend their win streak to 12 Monday night at 7:05 EST.