The Atlanta Braves are finally on a winning streak as they swept the Twins and took game one against the Cardinals on Monday night. The day started with some sour news as the team found out Spencer Strider injured his hamstring while playing catch before the game.
This left the team scrambling to find someone to start on Tuesday, and it will be a bullpen game. Luckily, the Braves had Spencer Schwellenbach on the mound for Monday's game. Schwellenbach tossed 7 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits with no walks and five strikeouts. He now has a 2.56 ERA through 31.2 IP with five walks and 27 strikeouts.
Atlanta's offense kept them in the game, and the Braves were losing 3-2 until we reached the eighth inning. Austin Riley reached first base hustling down the line on a ground ball. He was originally called out, but replay review deemed him safe. Riley scored the tying run of the game with an awkward head-first slide on a Matt Olson single.
Sean Murphy continued to prove his worth with huge late-inning home run to give Braves fourth-straight win
Albies walked to load the bases, and Michael Harris II drove in Eli White on a sac fly to right field. This brought up Sean Murphy, who has been huge for the Braves in clutch moments this season. He launched a scorching line-drive home run into the visitor's bullpen on the first pitch he saw.
This put the Braves up 7-3, and ended up being the difference maker as the Cardinals tried to claw their way back. Raisel Iglesias has struggled this season and now has a 6.00 ERA after St. Louis tagged him for three runs in the ninth.
Luckily, Murph continued his great work in clutch at-bats to prove all of the doubters wrong. A lot of fans had abandoned their starting catcher after his poor performance last season. Even though he was only in his second season with the team, and had been dealing with an oblique injury as a catcher.
Atlanta has started to find their stride offensively, and Murph has been a huge part of that. He is proving exactly why the Braves thought highly enough of him to extend him after he was acquired via trade. With two outs and runners in scoring position (the situation he found himself in last night), Murphy carries a 1.333 OPS with two homers and six RBI. According to Fangraphs, he has a .333 average and 280 wRC+ with RISP.
When the team is within three runs of the lead, he has a 1.000 OPS with five homers and 11 RBI. Murphy had 10 total home runs in 2024, and he's already matched half of that in 2025. It's safe to say he's feeling healthy.
Now, it is fair to point out he is only batting .205 on the season and has struck out more than we'd like. He has four walks to 16 strikeouts, with him sitting at a 34.8% K-rate. However, Murphy has a .590 slugging percentage and 150 wRC+. He'd be in great shape if he could improve his walk rate and reduce strikeouts, but you can't have everything going all the time.
He excels in chase percentage (20.9%), launch angle sweet spot (39.1%), barrel percentage (21.7%), xSLG (.546), and xwOBA (.383). It feels like he's inching closer to his All-Star self, and fans who doubted should have faith in him again.