Braves Briefing: Expect fireworks from Matt Olson and Shohei Ohtani

The two home run leaders in all of baseball, Matt Olson and Shohei Ohtani, face off tonight.

The Atlanta Braves will battle the Los Angeles Angels starting tonight and the attention will continue to be on Shohei Ohtani's incredible performance this season.

Ohtani's special season as both a pitcher and hitter is impressive. As a hitter this season, he currently leads all of the MLB in home runs with 39 - Braves first baseman Matt Olson is second with 35 - while as a pitcher, Ohtani is allowing the least hits in baseball per nine innings, at just under six, and is coming off of a complete game one-hit shutout of the Detroit Tigers.   

Expect offensive fireworks between the two of them in this upcoming series as Olson continues to be on a tear.

NL East Standings

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	67-36	-	Hosts LAA
Miami	57-49	11.5	Hosts Philadelphia
Philadelphia	56-49	12.0	@ Miami
NYM	50-55	18.0	Off
Washington	44-62	24.5	Hosts Milwaukee

We wrote it

Andrew Stefaniak led our Sunday coverage as the Braves completed the sweep against the Brewers. In his takeaways from the action, he added a note about pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver.

AJ Smith-Shawver did enough for the Braves to get the win but made some mistakes. Wild pitches led to a run and a runner moving over to scoring position in this ball game, which you can't have happen. Smith-Shawver also walked four batters in five innings of work, which is a number that needs to be cut down. He threw 93 pitches, with only 49 being strikes. Smith-Shawver needs to fill up the zone. If he does that, he can be good for the Braves.

What's Next?

The homestand will continue as the Braves host Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels. The Halos have been playing some good ball of late and made some significant trades, so this should be a fun series. Hopefully, the Braves are able to continue winning series and, in doing so, send the Angels back to L.A. unhappy. The first game of the series with the Angels will be played at 7:20 ET on Monday. This game can be watched on Bally Sports South. 

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