The Atlanta Braves were able to power past the Minnesota Twins in the first inning and win the series 6-2 thanks to yet another offensive outburst.

I mentioned in the game preview for tonight’s game that Joe Ryan had a rough start to the game. After all, his most recent appearance was a dominant shutout of the entire game, and he had been performing well throughout a series of appearances. Tonight, the Braves gave Ryan an extremely impolite welcome to Cobb County, which marked the end of that string. Everything started with the very first pitch he made. Ronald Acua Jr. crushed it and sent it flying into the home bullpen, tying the game at one run apiece.

The assault didn’t even begin with that. Ozzie Albies quickly followed it up with a triple and afterward Austin Riley brought back Ozzie as well as carried himself right back home with a round-sightseer to put the Overcomes ahead, 3-1. When Matt Olson struck out, Joe Ryan might have hoped that order would be restored for a brief moment. All things being equal, Sean Murphy declared his re-visitation of the setup by hitting a no-cynic to left-focus to make it a four-run inning for the Conquers and another effective first-inning assault overall for Atlanta.

The Braves weren’t done with Joe Ryan even though he was able to leave the first inning without inflicting any more damage. Michael Harris II and Ronald Acua Jr., a dynamic 9-1 team, struck Ryan with a mean double-team effort this time. Harris fell behind 0-2 to Ryan yet that didn’t make any difference once Ryan hung a slider square in the center of the zone. Money Mike hit the meatball perfectly, and when it landed, it got stuck in the back of a Chop House light fixture, making the score 5-1.

After that, Ryan had to face Acua, and he actually fought well at the plate in an effort to strike out Atlanta’s leadoff hitter. Fortunately for us fans, Acua prevailed decisively and hit his second home run in as many innings, this one to the left-field bullpen of the road. The homer put Acuña almost on pace for what might be an obviously ridiculous 40 homer/70 taken base season, which would be the stuff of legends. I honestly wouldn’t put it past him at this point given his performance this season.

With Acua’s second homer of the night, the Braves led 6-1, and Bryce Elder capitalized on the run support to have yet another successful night. Elder was able to prevent the Twins from doing any significant damage despite not being particularly dominant (he gave up four walks and four hits) and his backing defense being very wobbly to begin the game. He also continued to find ways to get out of any trouble he might have been in. One of Minnesota’s two runs on the night came from Eddie Rosario’s throw to home plate, which was ruled an error because it hit Joey Gallo on the way to home plate.

The Braves still had two defensive gems to show off on the night, despite that being Atlanta’s fourth error of the night (which included the Braves somehow managing to commit two errors on one play). When Ronald Acua Jr. made this backhanded catch in the fourth inning to deny Royce Lewis a big hit, he continued to make difficult plays look fun and exciting.

In the very next inning, Ozzie Albies made a diving stop on a grounder from Max Kepler, which was the other beautiful play. That by itself was great enough since it denied Kepler of a hit however rather than being happy with that, Ozzie flipped the ball to Orlando Arcia, who terminated the ball to Matt Olson at a respectable starting point to select up the. A 4-6-3 play for just one out won’t happen very often, but that’s why we watch every night, right? There’s always a chance to see something different, and this certainly met that criteria.

In the end, Bryce Elder pitched six strong innings and only allowed two runs in those innings. Michael Tonkin was called upon to take the Conquers further into the evening and by and by, he was up for the assignment of pitching numerous innings. Tonkin has now gone eight outings in a row with at least two innings pitched. He has now thrown two more scoreless innings. His last three outings have been very impressive: 9.2 innings with 11 strikeouts, zero runs allowed, four walks, and three hits.

That set up for Ben Heller to polish things off and his second appearance of this series went off effortlessly. After Heller finished, Atlanta was busy celebrating their 52nd win of the season. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning and gave up just one harmless hit. The Overcomes are presently 19-4 this month, which is shockingly like the tear that they continued last June that truly launched their season going full speed ahead. Although the Braves haven’t been limping into June like they did last year, this uptick in form has been welcomed nonetheless. They presently have a chance to get a range with a success tomorrow around lunchtime with the early showing planned to begin at 12:20 PM E.T.