Braves Briefing: Kevin Pillar has been awesome this season

The Atlanta Braves torched the Texas Rangers 12-0 in their series opener Monday night. Atlanta broke their offensive funk by hitting five two-run bombs, notching their fifth shutout of the season.

Kevin Pillar was a great signing

One of those two-run homeruns was courtesy of Kevin Pillar, a shot that added to his impressive 2023 campaign.

After signing a "prove it" type deal with the Braves this offseason (1 year, $3M), Pillar is hitting .278 from the plate, including a .364 average over his last seven games. The 34 year-old has proved capable of covering all three outfield positions for Atlanta and has expanded his role from 4th outfielder to part of the regular rotation in left field with Eddie Rosario, thanks to his .375/.366/.650 slash line against lefties.He's hit five homeruns, with eleven runs scored and thirteen RBIs in his twenty-three total games played (nineteen starts)

NL East Standings

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	20-15	-	@ Texas
Miami	20-21	6.0	Hosts Washington
Philadelphia	20-21	6.0	@ San Fransisco
NYM	20-22	6.5	Hosts Tampa Bay
Washington	18-23	8.0	@ Miami

We wrote it

Braves Today's Andrew Stefaniak took over our coverage Monday night and in one of his takeaways from the action, he highlighted Charlie Morton's performance.

Charlie Morton did what Charlie Morton does. The righty went 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball striking out ten Rangers batters. Interestingly enough, all of the seven hits allowed by Morton were singles. This makes it easier to work out of jams if each hit is only a station-to-station movement. Morton's season high in strikeouts helped the Braves shut out the Rangers to pick up their 26th win of the season. Morton is playing All-Star caliber baseball eight starts into the season.

Watch Atlanta highlights vs Texas

How to watch the Atlanta Braves vs the Texas Rangers

Tonight's first pitch is scheduled for 8:05 ET. The game broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports South/Bally Sports Southeast/ESPN/Apple TV/Fox/TBS/Peacock, and is available on MLB.TV outside of the broadcast area. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.

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