Braves Briefing: Spencer Strider set another record

The first 50 starts of Spencer Strider's career have been phenomenal.

The Atlanta Braves ace has struck out 435 batters in his first 50 starts. That's the most strikeouts in a pitcher's first 50 starts since 1900. He's also on pace to break Atlanta's franchise record for strikeouts in a season.

Atlanta's team single-season strikeout record is 276, set by John Smoltz in 1996. Strider is at 270. One more outing from Strider will give him the record, assuming it's anything close to one of his first 50 starts to his career.

NL Wild Card Standings

The Atlanta Braves have won the NL East and secured a first-round bye but we're closely watching the Wild Card race as Atlanta will play the winner of the Wild Card series pitting the top two wild card finishers in the Divisional Round.

Team	Record	Wild Card Games Back	Action Today
Philadelphia	82-69	+3.0	@ Atlanta
Arizona	80-72	+0.5	Hosts SF
Chi Cubs	79-72	-	Hosts Pittsburgh
Miami	79-73	-0.5	Hosts NYM
Cincinnati	79-74	-1.0	Hosts Minnesota
San Francisco	76-75	-3.0	@ Arizona

We wrote it

Braves Today's Will Moon led our coverage in last night's win over the Phillies. He pointed out that it was nice to get the win by such a large margin after dropping a few in a row.

Let's be real, it was nice to see the Braves just pummel somebody. It's entirely unreasonable for us to complain about this season, but this four-game stretch just felt really bad, worse than even it was. Maybe because it was all division foes, or just that it's so close to playoff time that everything gets magnified. Also you had the worrying Acuña injury in Miami and Max Fried's quasi-blister. But then you have a night like tonight, where everybody's chipping in and the game is in hand pretty much the whole way, and the long national nightmare is over...at least for now.

Here's all of the takeaways from Tuesday's action.

On Deck

The Braves and Phils wrap up the season series this afternoon, with first pitch coming bright and early at 12:20 Eastern. Bryce Elder (12-4, 3.50 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 4.33 xFIP) gets the ball for Atlanta, while Philly counters with the familiar face and hair of Aaron Nola (12-9, 4.62 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 3.79 xFIP). The Braves now lead the season series 8-4.

The TV broadcast will be available on Bally Sports South locally and MLB.tv outside of Braves Country. The radio call is available in the Atlanta metro area on 680 The Fan, across the Southeast on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network, and nationally on MLB.TV. The Braves then head to DC for their final road series of the season, with a four-game set against the Nationals starting on Thursday night.

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