Stop me if you’ve heard this before over the course of this excellent season, so far: The Atlanta Braves have won another series. Sure, they were definitely favorites to take another two-out-of-three games against a Toronto Blue Jays squad that had been spinning its wheels in the mud for a bit but the remarkable consistency of this team is truly something to behold. They’ve taken care of business with nearly every opportunity that they’ve had so far this season and the expectations remained the same
as Atlanta returned home from another productive road trip.
Still, this could’ve been a tough series for the Braves. The Blue Jays have had some strong pitching and a lineup that was seemingly itching to return to the level of production that helped propel them to the AL pennant in 2025. If any team currently has a target on their back based on current performance, it’s Atlanta. Toronto was surely looking to use this series as a way to get their season on track but as we’ve seen on numerous occasions, the Braves have no intentions of letting off of the proverbial gas pedal. So let’s take a look at how this series turned out.
Tuesday, June 2
Braves 4, Blue Jays 3
As we’ve gotten used to seeing lately, the Braves got off to a quick start in this one as the plated two runs to start things off. Ronald Acuña Jr. didn’t homer this time but his walk did help matters as Michael Harris II immediately followed it up by driving one deep into center field for an RBI double that sent Acuña racing from first to home. Ozzie Albies eventually brought home Money Mike with a sacrifice fly and it was 2-0 Braves to get things going.
Toronto did respond immediately, though. Kazuma Okamoto has hit the ground running since moving over from NPB to MLB and his two-run dinger off of Bryce Elder tied things up in the second. Considering that the Blue Jays had Kevin Gausman going, it sure felt like runs would be at a premium and it was totally feasible to imagine that this thing could’ve stayed 2-2 until both teams dipped into their bullpen.
As it turned out, the Braves weren’t done scoring off of Gausman. Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies got the job done with two outs on the board against Gausman in the third inning as Olson’s double and Albies’ subsequent RBI single put Atlanta back in front. Toronto knotted it back up with a sacrifice fly from Daulton Varsho in the sixth inning but the sixth ended up being the end of the line for Gausman. That was when Matt Olson hit a skyscraper shot out towards the Chop House that just about made it into the grass in home run territory to lead off the sixth in order to put Atlanta back in front by a lone run.
From that point forward, it was on the pitching staff to make sure that that single run from Olson’s blimp shot held up. Elder ended up winning the duel against Gausman by pitching into the seventh before passing the baton to the dynamic back-end duo of Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias. The tying run for Toronto did make it into scoring position against Iglesias in the ninth inning but a harmless pop up from the bat of Jesús Sánchez fell into Austin Riley’s glove to end the game and allow the Braves to set the tone in yet another series.
Wednesday, June 3
Braves 7, Blue Jays 3
This time, it was Toronto who got off to a fast start as they plated a run in the first inning to go ahead. It could’ve been a lot worse, though, as they loaded up the bases with nobody out against Grant Holmes. Fortunately, Holmes was able to get out of that jam with just the one run allowed and that ended up being a huge development considering how the rest of the game ended up going. Atlanta responded in the second inning with a bloop RBI single from Ha-Seong Kim (who badly needed something like that to go his way for once) to tie the game up at one run apiece.
Nathan Lukes ended up having a very solid series and you know it was good for him because he smacked his first dinger of the season in the third inning to put Toronto back in front. Fortunately for us Braves fans, that was as good as it got for the Blue Jays in this one as the Braves forged ahead from that point forward. Mauricio Dubón came up to the plate in Atlanta’s half of the third inning with two men on and two outs and Dubón proceeded to make some more two-out magic happen as he sent one out to the home bullpen in right-center for a three-run bomb off of Patrick Corbin that put Atlanta back in front.
Thanks to Grant Holmes throwing six steady innings and Atlanta’s bullpen clamping down on Toronto from that point forward (outside of a ninth inning moonshot from Brandon Valenzuela off of Tyler Kinley), the Braves were able to eventually pull away. Ozzie Albies essentially put the game to bed in the seventh inning as he bopped one out off of the scoreboard below the Hank Aaron Terrace in left field for Atlanta’s second three-run dinger of the night. Two innings later, the Braves were celebrating their 17th series win of the season — it’s still just June, mind you.
Wednesday, June 4
Blue Jays 7, Braves 2
Well, when you consider how the xBA results went for the first two games (Blue Jays lost the first game despite winning the xBA battle .211 to .188 and lost by four runs in the second game while only losing the xBA battle by .11), it kind of felt inevitable that the Blue Jays would eventually see something go their way in a tangible matter during this series. That was the case in this one, as they racked up sixteen hits (10 of which came off of Chris Sale) and never trailed on their way to salvaging the series with a 7-2 win.
A three-run third inning where Sale really had to labor to get out of it was the early pivotal point of this contest and it sure helped Toronto’s chances when the debuting Chad Dallas managed to escape the bottom of the third by only giving up one run on a Matt Olson sacrifice fly. That one run was all the Braves could muster up against Toronto’s pitching staff until the eighth inning, which is when Mauricio Dubón fired up everybody in the ballpark (particularly the large “Tarps Off” contingent in the 400 level) with a solo shot that cut the deficit to just one run.
Any hopes of a fantastic finish were quashed following the ninth inning, though. Reynaldo López made his first appearance since May 31 and reader, it wasn’t a good one. He got dinged for four runs on five hits and a walk and those four runs essentially made it so that Toronto could breathe a bit easier on their way to completely thwarting any hopes the Braves had of pulling off a comeback win for a sweep.
The Atlanta Braves are currently experiencing some real baseball first-world problems. “Oh no, they’ve won 17 out of 20 series but only two of those were sweeps.” “Oh no, the bullpen had a rare off night.” “Oh no, the star offseason signing is struggling, I guess they’ll have to choose between two perfectly capable replacements on any given night.” Basically, if these are the quibbles that your team has to deal with at any given time, then things are going quite alright.
It was especially nice to see the Braves take the two games where Chris Sale didn’t start. It’s certainly a rare occasion to see Sale give up so many hits and have to deal with so many baserunners in any given start so it’s good that this off-night of sorts came when the Braves already had the series in hand. Bryce Elder continues to simply find ways to get the job done and Grant Holmes showed some real resilience in his start to make sure that he didn’t fall victim to the same pratfalls that have tripped him up in recent starts.
Plus, the offense just continues to keep on raking. Mauricio Dubón had a bit of a blip at the plate but he appears to be determined to prove that he can get the job done with the bat as well as his glove. Ronald Acuña Jr. didn’t carry over his supernova form from the road trip but he’s definitely looked a lot more productive as he starts to find some steady form again. Matt Olson continues to be, well, Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies has been continuing to undergo a resurgence of his own. Despite the wobble on Thursday, Atlanta’s entire pitching staff is still rolling along and doing a great job of limiting any damage that they may sustain so that this offense can keep on having opportunities to change the game with any given at-bat.
So yeah, life continues to be good for the Atlanta Braves during the 2026 season. The Pirates will be coming into this weekend’s series playing some pretty good baseball so it’s not like Atlanta’s going to be getting any type of respite when it comes to the competition. Still, when a team is running as hot as the Braves have been, it’s hard to really bet against them slowing down until it actually happens. We’ll see if that’s the case on the weekend or if the Braves will continue to steamroll over anybody who happens to be in their way on the schedule.
