A quieter night for the offense, but it was enough for the Atlanta Braves to pick up their ninth win in a row with a 4-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
The win moves the Braves record to 57-27, with the loss dropping Cleveland's record to 41-43. The Marlins beat the Cardinals tonight in Miami, so they remain nine games behind Atlanta in the NL East.
After some shocking scoreless innings to open the game, the Braves struck first in the 3rd with Michael Harris II hitting a solo home run to right center field. Ronald Acuña Jr. followed that up with a single to extend his current hitting streak to 14 games. Shocking no one, he then stole second base to reach 40 stolen bases this year. Ozzie Albies would then drop a single into right to plate Acuña and extend Atlanta's lead to 2-0.
Marcell Ozuna needed just one more inning to extend his current hitting streak to 13 games, lifting a homer 375 feet into right to push the Braves lead to 3-0. Ozuna is hitting .288 during this current streak.
The home run barrage continued for Atlanta into the fifth, with Harris hitting his second of the night, and ninth home run of the 2023 season to make it 4-0 after five innings. After his average sunk as low as .163 last month, Harris is now hitting .269 on the year.
All-Star Bryce Elder, (yep, still real.) threw six strong scoreless innings for the Braves, before allowing an Amed Rosario single that scored two runs to half the Braves lead. AJ Minter came in with two outs in the 7th inning to escape without any further damage.
Raisel Iglesias threw a clean ninth inning to seal the victory and give the Braves their longest win streak since they won 14 games to open in June of 2022. He now has 15 saves in his last 17 opportunities and has thrown a scoreless inning in five of his last six appearances.
The Braves will look to make it double-digit wins in a row on Tuesday with game two of the three-game series with Cleveland. Kolby Allard is set to make his second start of 2023, with the Guardians sending Shane Bieber to the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET.