Braves’ six‑run avalanche
The Atlanta Braves exploded for six runs in the sixth inning on three homers, a swing that turned the game into an onslaught. (x.com) Michael Harris II cleared the seats with a 2‑run, 425‑foot homer (+575 odds), Matt Olson followed with a 2‑run, 441‑foot blast (+320 odds), and Ronald Acuña Jr. added his first homer of the season — complete with a textbook bat flip in the new City Connect uniforms. (x.com) (x.com)
Atlanta put this game away in one burst on Wednesday, April 8, when the Braves turned an 8-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels into a highlight reel with three home runs in the same inning at Angel Stadium. The club left Anaheim at 8-5 after taking the series two games to one. (mlb.com) (espn.com) The inning started with Michael Harris the Second driving a two-run shot 425 feet, and the betting market had him at +575 to homer before first pitch. A few batters later, Matt Olson hit a two-run homer of his own that traveled 441 feet and had been priced at +320. (x.com) Then Ronald Acuña Junior joined them with his first home run of the 2026 season, sending a no-doubter the other way and flipping the bat before he left the box. Major League Baseball’s video feed labeled it the swing that ignited the big inning. (youtube.com) (mlb.com) That sequence landed because Atlanta’s lineup is built to do this even when the box score looks quiet for five innings. Olson already had a two-run homer in the third inning against Angels left-hander Reid Detmers, so by the time the late barrage arrived, the Braves had stacked power on top of power. (mlb.com) (cbssports.com) The win also fit Atlanta’s first two weeks. The Braves opened 2026 with another three-homer game against the Kansas City Royals, and by April 9 they had gone 8-5 through their first 13 games after a seven-game trip out west. (mlb.com) (ajc.com) Acuña’s homer carried extra attention because he is still one of the sport’s centerpieces after returning from a torn left knee ligament in May 2025. He hit a 467-foot homer on the first pitch he saw in that return game last season, so his first 2026 homer was less a random swing than another reminder that his power changes the shape of an inning fast. (nbcsports.com) (mlb.com) The uniform detail mattered too, because Atlanta had just introduced a new City Connect look on April 9 that nods to the club’s old Turner Broadcasting System television era. So Acuña’s bat flip and first homer of the season landed at the exact moment the team was rolling out a new visual identity around one of its most recognizable stars. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) By the end of the afternoon, the final score was 8-2, the attendance was 21,375, and Grant Holmes had given Atlanta 6 2/3 innings on the mound. But the part people will remember is simpler than the box score: three Braves, three swings, and one inning that felt like a summer storm arriving all at once. (mlb.com) (baseball-reference.com)
