The Atlanta Braves dropped their second straight game Thursday night with a 1-0 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks. They saw a couple of streaks come to an end in the final two games of the series, but we will get to those in a moment.
After winning the first two games of the series, it is hard not to come away a little disappointed with a series split. It is certainly better than a loss, but the Braves dropped two more games in the standings and now trail the Philadelphia Phillies by 9.5 games in the NL East standings. Atlanta still holds a 4.0 game advantage for the top Wild Card spot.
Braves take season series with Arizona
The Braves won five of the seven meetings against Arizona and will hold the tiebreaker advantage should it come into play. The Diamondbacks are currently 1.0 game back of the New York Mets for the final playoff spot.
The Braves had won six-straight games against Arizona dating back to the 2023 season before dropping the final two games of the series. Atlanta is 60-45 overall against the Diamondbacks since 2016.
Wednesday’s loss also snapped a four-game winning streak for Atlanta. The Braves also won four-straight on June 17-June 21. The only longer streak that they have on the season was a six-game streak back on April 14-20.
Marcell Ozuna continues surge
Marcell Ozuna had two more hits in Thursday’s 1-0 defeat. He leads the National League and is third in the majors with 75 RBIs. That is tied for the most by a Braves player since 1966 before the All-Star break. Andruw Jones also drove in 75 runs before the break in 2006.
Dating back to May 1 of last season, Ozuna leads the majors with 173 RBI by a good margin. Juan Soto ranks second with 161 and Matt Olson is third with 157.
Additionally, Ozuna’s 24 homers are the 10th most by a Braves player prior to the break since 1966. Olson holds the record with 29 homers last season.
Offense was rolling until it wasn’t
Thursday’s 1-0 defeat snapped a stretch of six-straight games where the Braves had scored at least five runs. That matched the longest stretch of the season. They also pulled the trick in April. Atlanta is currently tied for 17th in the majors in runs scored with 395, but is third in the National League with 287 extra-base hits.
Sean Murphy swinging a hot bat
Sean Murphy’s season got off to a tough start when he suffered a strained oblique on Opening Day and missed the next two months of action. He struggled to find his form after returning and was 7-for-52 over his first 15 games back.
He is starting to find it again though.Since June 19, Murphy is hitting .302/.373/.566 with four homers and a 159 wRC+.
Austin Riley continues to produce
Austin Riley had two hits in Thursday’s loss and produced Atlanta’s only extra-base hit in the game. He was 7-for-16 in the series with three doubles and a home run. Since the start of June, Riley has put up a .306/.382/.597 line with nine home runs and a 171 wRC+.
