This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
A little more than two months from now, the Braves will head into the postseason with a record-setting bunch. Well, anything can happen. But it certainly appears that way.
With the Braves having played 100 games, here’s a look at the pace the team and some of its players have set.
Wins: 103
The Braves are 64-36 and 10 games ahead of the second-place Phillies in the National League East. They are on pace to claim 103 victories, which would match the third-highest total in franchise history. The 1998 club won 106 games and the 1993 team claimed 104 wins. The '99 team was the only other club to reach 103 wins.
The good news? The '99 team reached the World Series, and the '98 and '93 clubs were bounced during the NL Championship Series.
Home runs: 304
The Braves’ MLB-leading 188 homers puts them on pace to hit 304, which would be three shy of the MLB record tallied by Eddie Rosario and the 2019 Twins. But Atlanta's total would shatter the franchise record of 249, set in '19.
Matt Olson homers: 51
Olson’s NL-leading 32 home runs puts him on pace for 51 HRs. It would match the franchise record Andruw Jones set in 2005, when Olson was just an 11-year-old boy dreaming of becoming the next Jeff Francoeur at Parkview (Ga.) High School.
Olson has hit 11 first-inning home runs. Alex Rodriguez set the MLB record with 18 in 2001. The only Brave to hit more first-inning homers than Olson was Hank Aaron with 13 in '71.
RAJ everything
Ronald Acuña Jr. is on pace to hit 37 homers and steal 77 bases. Somewhere over the next couple weeks, we should get a better feel for whether he’ll end up with 40 homers. He has homered once every 12.4 at-bats in August during his career. If he reaches that mark, he'll be on pace to produce the fifth 40-40 season in baseball history. The highest stolen base total during a 40-40 season was the 46 compiled by Rodriguez during his 42-homer season in 1998.
Acuña has 37 first-inning hits and is on pace for 59
MLB record: Lefty O’Doul, 64 in 1929
Braves record: Chipper Jones, 49 in 1998, and Marquis Grissom, 49 in ‘96.
Acuña has 10 first-inning doubles and is on pace for 16
MLB record: Craig Biggio, 17 in 2004, and David Wright, 17 in ‘12
Braves record: Freddie Freeman, 14 in 2014, and Marcus Giles, 14 in ‘03
Acuña has scored 30 first-inning runs and is on pace for 48
MLB record: Lenny Dykstra, 45 in 1993, and Rickey Henderson, 45 in ‘85
Braves record: Jones, 33 in 1999
300 strikeouts
Spencer Strider easily leads the Majors with 199 strikeouts. If his workload and pace remain the same over the season’s final 62 games, he would end up with 322 strikeouts. He would be the third Braves pitcher to record a 300-strikeout season and the first since Charlie Buffinton, who tallied 417 strikeouts over 587 innings in 1884.
Cole Jacobson wrote this article about Strider’s bid for 300 K's.