![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275378045-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 It hasn\u2019t been an easy week for the entire Atlanta community, with media mogul Ted Turner and legendary manager Bobby Cox passing away three days apart. But the best way to honor those key figures in Braves history is to continue building off the impressive start, and playing the brand of Atlanta baseball they shepherded in.\u2028\u2028And no one has done that better of late than Georgia native Matt Olson, who in Sunday\u2019s 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers surpassed Gus Suhr by playing in his 823rd consecutive game for the 10th-longest streak in MLB history.<\/p>\n
Olson is MLB\u2019s active leader in consecutive games played, which is, of course, mostly attributable to good health. But just the same, hitting 301 home runs and playing Gold Glove-caliber defense while being an integral member of the clubhouse have helped him keep a daily spot in the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo play that many games in a row, you have to be good,\u201d Braves manager Walt Weiss said. \u201cOr the manager tends to give you a day off. \u2026 That\u2019s what he\u2019s done, he performed over the length of the streak. So, he gets to go out there every single day. He\u2019s a cornerstone for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old is putting up MVP-caliber numbers, with a 1.031 OPS that ranks fourth in the majors, and to no surprise, was a key player in the team\u2019s first three-city trip of the season. He had 10 hits in nine games, his hot stretch culminating with his 14th homer of the year in the top of the ninth inning Sunday.\u2028\u2028\u201cI would say a lot of luck (is) involved,\u201d said Olson, who trails Kyle Schwarber and Aaron Judge for the MLB lead in home runs by two. \u201cAnything can happen at any time. I\u2019m just ready to play when I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitching still keeping Braves afloat<\/p>\n
The Braves return home with the best record in baseball at 28-13 after going 6-3 against a diverse portfolio of teams: from the struggling Colorado Rockies, the competitive Seattle Mariners (who handed them their first series loss of the season) and the back-to-back World Series champion Dodgers.\u2028\u2028Everything is going surprisingly well despite the team being affected by injuries all spring. Pitching has been the key.<\/p>\n
Spencer Strider, who began the year sidelined with a right oblique strain and struggled with command upon his return last week, looked close to vintage form in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Strider dominated a potent Dodgers lineup on Saturday, striking out eight and giving up only one hit. Strider\u2019s velocity held at 95-96 mph, even touching 97.6 mph, and he induced 15 whiffs over six innings. He also got Shohei Ohtani to strike out swinging twice.<\/p>\n
Strider relied on his slider, his go-to breaking pitch, and incorporated his curveball, a pitch that he began deploying in 2024, 10 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s as good as I\u2019ve seen Spencer in a while,\u201d Weiss said after Strider was credited with the victory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Spencer Strider looked more like himself in his second start of the season. (Meg Oliphant \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Said Ozzie Albies: \u201c(When he) can throw hard like that, and then with a nasty slider, curveball, it makes a difference. You cut the hitters in between and it\u2019s tough to hit like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe held his velocity throughout, went against obviously a really good lineup, so that was really good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
As complimentary as Weiss was over the Braves $75-million dollar right-hander, Strider said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to disregard how I feel in a lot of ways. Putting up zeros is my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key will be to continue building off the encouraging start, especially after struggling with his command in Colorado last week.\u2028\u2028\u201cSometimes it\u2019s easy to get focused on where things are trending and how things are feeling,\u201d Strider said. \u201cUltimately the game is moving so fast you gotta be able to be external and find a way to accomplish the task, throw strikes, compete, be aggressive and put up zeros.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Bryce Elder has continued to step up for the Braves as rotation pieces like Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep remain on the injured list. The 26-year-old on Sunday struck out eight Dodgers, at one point retired 15 hitters in a row and lowered his ERA to 1.81 for fifth-best in the league.<\/p>\n
Elder ran into trouble when he issued three straight two-out walks in the sixth inning to load the bases, but he was saved by Eli White, who slammed face-first into the right-field wall to rob a potential run-scoring hit after Robert Suarez entered in relief.<\/p>\n
The game-changing play came at a cost, though. Despite playing the seventh inning, White was replaced in the field in the eighth so he could be placed in concussion protocol.<\/p>\n
Speaking of injuries \u2026<\/p>\n
Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. on Friday did agility drills in the outfield with a speed band, sprayed balls throughout the seats of Dodger Stadium and even filled in at first base during infield practice \u2013 of course, just to lend a helping hand and nothing more.\u2028\u2028He was placed on the 10-day injured list with a Grade 1 hamstring strain on May 3.\u2028\u2028Things look encouraging for the outfielder. But when asked about Acu\u00f1a returning as soon as he\u2019s eligible on May 13, Weiss said, \u201cI guess there\u2019s a chance, but it\u2019s just so hard to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just now starting to move around and that type of thing. He\u2019s got a lot out in front of him still, but like I said, we didn\u2019t think it was all that serious when it happened. I think there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll be back sooner than later, but he\u2019s still got a lot of boxes he still needs to check.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, catcher Sean Murphy was taken out of Sunday\u2019s game after he was hit in the hand\/wrist on a seventh-inning catcher\u2019s interference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 It hasn\u2019t been an easy week for the entire Atlanta community, with media mogul Ted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2111,363,99],"class_list":["post-636026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}