Braves Briefing: Atlanta has the most first-half homeruns in baseball history, and is on pace for a MLB record

The Atlanta Braves are one of few teams scoring half or more of their runs via the long ball

Good morning! Your Atlanta Braves picked up their 11th straight series win with a 6-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in a "sold out" Tropicana Field last night. They are the first team to 60 wins on the MLB season, and head into today's series finale with a chance for a sweep of the team with the 2nd best record in baseball.  

Atlanta's Sean Murphy hit his second homerun of the series last night, extending the team's HR streak to a franchise record 25 straight games - it's the longest consecutive game HR streak in Major League Baseball this season. The HR gives Atlanta 168 on the season and paces them for a MLB-record 313. 

The previous record was 307 by the 2019 Minnesota Twins, who had five 30-homer hitters in the same season. As of Sunday morning, Matt Olson (53), Ozzie Albies (41), Ronald Acuña Jr (39), Sean Murphy (31), and Marcell Ozuna (31) are all on pace to match that feat, with Austin Riley (29) and Eddie Rosario (26) one good hot streak away from adding to that group. 

NL East Standings

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	60-28	--	@ Tampa Bay
Miami	52-39	9.5	vs Philadelphia
Philadelphia	48-40	12.0	@ Miami
NY Mets	42-47	18.5	@ San Diego
Washington	35-54	25.5	vs Texas

We Wrote It

We talked yesterday about how the Marlins may be 2nd in the NL East standings, but it's mostly been smoke and mirrors to this point in the season:

Miami's run differential for the season is -11, meaning they've allowed more runs (385) then they've scored (374). Their Pythagorean win/loss record, meaning their estimated win/loss record based on their scoring versus their opponents, is 44-46.
So how is Miami doing it? Easy: They're beating bad teams. Miami's 28-15 against teams with losing records, while they're only 23-24 against teams with winning records. (For context, Atlanta's 25-10 against teams with losing records and 34-18 against teams with winning records. Oh, and they're the best in baseball when it comes to playing the best teams.)

Read the full piece HERE.

Watch highlights from Saturday's victory over the Tampa Bay Rays

How to watch the Atlanta Braves vs the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, July 9th

Today's final game before the All-Star Break is a 12:40 ET first pitch, and the broadcast will be on Bally Sports Southeast. 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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