Pirates eager to continue power streak in clash vs. Braves

Two of the most prolific offensive teams in the majors will square off Friday night when the Atlanta Braves host the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a three-game series.

Atlanta is third in the majors with 329 runs, and Pittsburgh is fourth with 325.

Pittsburgh has homered in 11 straight games, something it has done only a handful of other times in the modern era -- 2015 (12 games), 2012 (11), 1996 (12), 1994 (13) and 1966 (12).

Ryan O'Hearn hit his ninth homer of the season in Thursday's 5-1 victory over the Houston Astros to keep the power streak alive for the Pirates, who have won five of their last six games.

The Braves, in turn, lost 7-2 to Toronto on Thursday but took two of three games from the Blue Jays to improve to 17-2-1 in series this season.

Friday's starting pitchers will feature Atlanta left-hander Martin Perez (3-3, 2.79 ERA) against Pittsburgh right-hander Mitch Keller (5-2, 4.35).

Perez is coming off a solid performance on Saturday against Cincinnati. He allowed two runs on four hits over five innings in a 5-2 win.

Perez has made four career starts against the Pirates, going 3-1 with a 3.47 ERA. He did not face Pittsburgh last year.

Keller will make his 13th start of the season. He did not receive a decision in his most recent appearance, against Minnesota on Saturday, when he allowed season-high totals in runs (seven) and hits (10) over four innings of Pittsburgh's 10-9 victory.

Keller has made seven career starts against the Braves, going 1-3 with a 7.31 ERA. He faced them once last year and gave up one run on three hits and five walks in 3 2/3 innings in his final appearance of the season.

The Pirates' offense has been driven by Brandon Lowe (.257, 15 homers, 40 RBIs) and Oneil Cruz (.269, 14, 44).

"Hitting is contagious, no matter which way you put it, whether it is home runs or singles or doubles or whatnot," Lowe said. "When the bats are hot, I feel like everyone is kind of racing to the bat rack to get up there."

Despite playing in the shadow of Matt Olson and Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta's Michael Harris II continues to stand out at the plate and has thrived while hitting in the No. 2 in the lineup. Over the last seven games, Harris is batting .321 with one homer and five RBIs.

"Michael is having a good year, man," Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. "He's still relatively young (25), but he's figuring some things out. He's always going to swing a lot, and he's going to chase some, but get gets the barrel to it, he can hit it really hard, and he can do some damage outside the strike zone. Mikey's turned into really good player."

Pittsburgh went 4-2 against the Braves last year to record its first season-series win over Atlanta since 2017.

--Field Level Media