Braves Briefing: Atlanta has the best offense in the NL

The Atlanta Braves are among the best statistically in all of baseball despite dropping the series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

What a game Wednesday night!

An Ozzie Albies walk-off sacrifice fly to score Austin Riley from third is exactly what saved the Braves from getting swept by a team for the third time this season. As for the rest of Atlanta's offense last night, it can all be chalked up to the long ball.

Atlanta now leads the NL in slugging percentage at .456, OPS at .787, and home runs per game with 1.63 according to David O'Brien of The Athletic. We've seen Atlanta rely on the long ball in situations where they couldn't string together hits during some parts of the season.  

Atlanta leads on the other side of that as well. In the same tweet put out by O'Brien, he points out that the Braves' pitching leads the NL in ERA at 3.62, strikeouts with 473, and have allowed the second-fewest home runs this season. Atlanta's pitching problem has been very public and a loud note that has been brought up by the fanbase, but with these numbers and the eventual return of Kyle Wright, Max Fried, and Michael Soroka, hold tight Atlanta fans.

NL East Standings

The Mets lost last night so they join the Marlins at 25-25 and a .500 record. While this gives Atlanta some more room in the NL East lead, it also drops the Braves' record against teams better than .500 to 16-14... if you care about that stuff.

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	30-19	-	Hosts Philadelphia
Miami	25-25	5.5	@ Colorado
NYM	25-25	5.5	@ CHC
Philadelphia	23-26	7.0	@ Atlanta
Washington	21-28	9.0	Hosts San Diego

We wrote it

I handled last night's game coverage for Braves Today and was very impressed with the surprising consistency that we've seen from Bryce Elder this season.

Entering the season, Elder was tabbed as a rotation piece and fringe Triple-A-type pitcher for the Braves. That has not been the case at all.
Now sporting a 4-0 record, he has gone for more than five innings in every start on the season. In a year where the Braves bullpen has left a lot to be desired, to say that is important is quite frankly an understatement.
His slider has been on all season and while he doesn't generate a ton of strikeouts, his pitch placement makes it hard to get on base against him.
This is another great reason to always respect your elders, kids.

Check out the full takeaways from last night's win.

Watch highlights of Atlanta vs Los Angeles

How to watch the Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves will host the Philadelphia Phillies for a four-game series this weekend. Thursday's action will start at 7:20 ET and will be broadcast inside Braves Country on Bally Sports Southeast with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin and is available on MLB.tv outside the local broadcast area. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.

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