Are the Braves having a historic season in the first inning?
If the Braves continue their first-inning pitching success, they'd have the 23rd-lowest first-inning ERA of all-time. That's pretty successful, but it doesn't come close to touching the 1974 Oakland Athletics, who somehow limited opponents to a 1.67 ERA in a full season. If the Braves were to beat this record, they could only allow 25 more earned runs in the first over the next 81 games.
Offensively, however, the Atlanta Braves are historic. The Braves first-inning OPS is .998. There has never been a team in MLB history to have a team OPS above .990 in any inning (not including extra innings) in a full season. The St. Louis Cardinals had a .988 OPS in the first inning in 2000. The 1950 Boston Red Sox are the third, with a .968 OPS in the first inning.
The team is on pace to hit 54 homers in the first and have 228 hits. One player in MLB history has ever hit 50 or more homers while also collecting over 210 hits, and it was done by Jimmy Foxx 91 years ago.
The Braves are also on pace to score 162 runs. This would break the 1950 Red Sox for most runs in an inning ever.
Ronald Acuña Jr's pace of 54 runs would shatter the current record for most runs in a first-inning, which is currently held by 1985 Rickey Henderson and 1993 Lenny Dykstra at 45.
Matt Olson would break Alex Rodriguez's 2001 record of first-inning homers, which currently sits at 18. Only eight players in MLB history have more than 15.
Will the Braves continue their first inning success?
Historically, the safe bet is to say "no." However, as the House That Hank Staff has learned this year from Eric Cole's tattoo bet, sometimes, making the historically safe bet isn't always a good idea.
Tattoo update since you monsters didn't forget about the bet as hoped: Once Ronnie gets to 30 homers, I'll get a GoFundMe set up. If he gets 40/40, I will use that to offset the cost of the tattoo and donate the rest to charity. If not, it all goes to charity.
— Eric Cole (@leprekhan) July 1, 2023
The 2023 Atlanta Braves are one of the best Braves teams we've ever seen so far, and the top of the is a juggernaut. If Ronald Acuña Jr. continues to lead the way in the first inning, it won't be shocking if the Braves shatter first-inning records.