‘Scary for other teams’: Riley continues torrid homer streak

MILWAUKEE — Orlando Arcia gave his former franchise a glimpse of his All-Star type and Austin Riley moved inside a recreation of a franchise document.

It appears protected to say the Braves have distanced themselves from any frustration they might have felt whereas experiencing a four-game shedding streak earlier this week. With Arcia and Riley each hitting two-run homers, Atlanta overpowered the Brewers in a 6-4 win on Friday evening at American Household Discipline.

Arcia’s go-ahead homer within the second inning was the primary hit he has recorded in Milwaukee for the reason that Brewers traded him to the Braves one week into the 2021 season. Riley’s third-inning, opposite-field shot gave him at the least one homer in every of the previous 4 video games. The franchise document is 5 straight video games, shared by 9 gamers together with Ronald Acuña Jr., Chipper Jones, Hank Aaron and Rogers Hornsby.

“I wish to go on the market and do my job because the third hitter, which is to drive in runs and do harm,” Riley mentioned. “I’m doing that proper now, so it feels good.”

With a pair of wins separating them from their four-game skid, the Braves now have a season-high 11 1/2-game lead within the National League East. They’ve compiled an MLB-best document with a lineup that has produced a record-setting tempo with an MLB-best 184 homers.

The Braves are on tempo to hit 310 homers, which might finest the MLB document (307) the ‘19 Twins hit. Main the way in which has been Matt Olson, who leads the NL with 32 dwelling runs. Acuña (23), Ozzie Albies (22) and Riley (21) have additionally hit at the least 20 homers.

No different workforce has 4 gamers with at the least 20 homers. The Dodgers are the one different workforce with at the least three gamers on this membership coming into Friday.

Riley grew to become the latest member of this membership. He homered 5 occasions inside a span of 13 at-bats, going from Tuesday’s fourth inning via Friday’s third inning. He has gone 8-for-17 with 5 homers, a double and a triple inside his previous 4 video games.

“Taking a look at what he has executed this 12 months with out actually hitting a sizzling streak till now’s type of scary in a means, for different groups at the least,” Braves beginning pitcher Michael Soroka mentioned. “It’s thrilling for us, given our lineup and the place we’re as a workforce. He’s able to being as sizzling as any of them.”

Consistency has eluded Riley, who’s now hitting .270 with a .818 OPS. However he’s on tempo for a third-straight 30-homer season and fairly presumably a 3rd straight top-10 end in NL MVP balloting.

Riley and Arcia’s homers offered early assist for Soroka, who started his six-inning effort by permitting consecutive doubles to Christian Yelich and former Courageous William Contreras. The Braves right-hander’s solely different harm got here courtesy of Willy Adames’ two-run homer within the sixth.

Soroka earned his second win since 2020 when Kirby Yates escaped a ninth-inning risk. Nearer Raisel Iglesias wasn’t obtainable as a result of he pitched Tuesday, warmed up in Wednesday’s recreation after which pitched once more on Thursday.

Yates, a former All-Star nearer, issued a pair of two-out walks then ended the sport when he snuck a slider previous Blake Perkins. Milwaukee’s outfielder fouled seven straight pitches earlier than ending the 11-pitch plate look by taking a look at a pitch the Braves reliever has used simply 9 occasions this 12 months.

“He threw it a pair weeks in the past, and I used to be like, ‘Huh?’” Riley mentioned. “So when [Perkins] stored fouling it off and fouling it off, I used to be like, ‘It is perhaps a very good time to pop it in there.’ He did and that was good. Guys are stepping up proper now. He’s a kind of guys.”

So, too is Arcia, whose days as Milwaukee’s shortstop ended when Adames was acquired from the Rays. The veteran infielder spent the previous two seasons backing up Dansby Swanson and needed to battle two Minor Leaguers earlier than exiting Spring Coaching as Atlanta’s beginning shortstop.

However Arcia was showered with love a pair weeks in the past, when he was named the NL’s beginning shortstop for the All-Star Sport. He mentioned he obtained a variety of congratulatory texts from his former Brewers teammates.

As Arcia’s homer cleared the left-center-field wall within the second, Brewers starter Freddy Peralta second-guessed his choice to not ship one.

“He was most likely mad at me,” Peralta mentioned. “You may inform [by] tonight.”