Braves Briefing: Atlanta is STILL the last undefeated team in the NL East

The Atlanta Braves continued their successful open to the 2023 season with a 7-1 defeat of the Washington Nationals on Saturday, making Atlanta one of only four undefeated teams in the major leagues (along with the Rangers, Rays, and Twins)

Spencer Strider

Last year's runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year picked up where he left off last season, striking out nine and finishing with six strikeouts of shutout ball against the Nationals. Sporting his new #99, an homage to character Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn from Major League, Strider was almost untouchable in his first start of the season.

Start your day off right by watching all of @SpencerSTRIDer's strikeouts from yesterday 😍#ForTheA pic.twitter.com/z4XCyZxd4X
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 2, 2023

The pitch clock is working

The Cleveland Guardians beat the Seattle Mariners yesterday, 2-0. The game time was two hours and three minutes, the fastest game of the season (so far) under the new pitch clock and timing rules.

Looking at the NL East

Not a great day in the division, as Philadelphia got smacked around by the Texas Rangers 16-3 and the NL East finished 2-3 (although, in their defense, the Marlins lost to the Mets and the Nationals lost to the Braves, so two of those three losses were inside the division)

Atlanta 2-0 - Plays Washington today
New York Mets 2-1 (0.5 GB) Plays Miami today

Miami 1-2 (1.5 GB) -Plays NYM today

Philadelphia 0-2 (2 GB) - Plays Texas today
Washington 0-2 (2GB) - Plays Atlanta today

We wrote it

Much (digital) ink was spilled about the shortstop battle over the summer and spring, but Orlando Arcia has quieted the detractors with his performance to open the season. Here's a note from Braves Today writer Dan Strickland:

Shortstop has been the biggest question mark all offseason for the Braves. Orlando Arcia won the starting job and has looked solid in the field and at the plate in the first two games. Today he was three for four with an RBI. The best-case scenario for the Braves is for Arcia to continue to play well and allow Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake extended playing time at AAA Gwinnett.

Check out the full story

Stories from the opening series

Max Fried leaves start versus Nationals with hamstring issue

Takeaways from Atlanta's game one win vs Washington

Takeaways from the Atlanta Braves game two win vs the Washington Nationals

WATCH: Ronald Acuna gets the first hit and stolen base this season

What do the Braves do to replace Max Fried in the rotation?

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