Braves Briefing: Is it safe to say that Michael Harris is back?

After winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award a season ago, Michael Harris has had a rocky start to the 2023 MLB Season.

The Braves outfielder battled injury and a tough approach at the plate for a good part of the season. In his last seven games, he's batting .556 with three home runs, nine RBIs, and just one strikeout.

Yesterday, in Atlanta's explosive win over the Colorado Rockies, he went five for five at the plate.

According to ESPN Stats and Info, Michael Harris II is the first Braves player since 1900 with a 5-hit game out of the No. 9 spot in the order. He is also the first Braves player age 22 or younger with a 5-hit game since Andruw Jones in 1999.

NL East Standings

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	46-46	-	Off
Miami	41-31	5.0	Hosts Toronto
Philadelphia	38-34	8.0	Off
NYM	33-38	12.5	@ Houston
Washington	27-43	18.0	Hosts STL

We wrote it

Braves Today's Lindsay Crosby covered the Sunday action. He highlighted how ridiculous the offense was in this series.

For the four games, Atlanta outscored Colorado 39-12 and hit eleven homeruns.
In Sunday's game, specifically, every single hitter both got a hit and scored at least one run with a single exception, Austin Riley (who went 0-6 on the day with two strikeouts, albeit with a 110 mph groundout in the 7th that had an expected batting average of .500).
On the season, seven of Atlanta's nine lineup regulars have ten or more homeruns, led by Matt Olson's twenty.
Here's the wildest stat to me: With Michael Harris II launching one 453 ft today, that's the sixteenth homerun of 450 or more feet on the season.
The RECORD in the Statcast era was set by the 2021 Colorado Rockies, who hit nineteen of that length. Over a full season.
Atlanta may break that by next weekend.

Here's the full list of takeaways.

What's next for the Atlanta Braves

Atlanta is flying to Philadelphia and has an off-day on Monday before starting a three-game set against the Phillies. First pitch in Tuesday's series opener is set for 6:40 PM ET, with Spencer Strider scheduled to face off with LHP Ranger Suarez. The game broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports South 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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