We don’t normally publish on Saturdays here at JoeBlogs, but there were a couple of things that happened in June that I think we should talk about before time gets away from us.
First thing, Brilliant Reader and friend Tommy wrote: “I would be interested in knowing where this Braves month falls in greatest baseball months of all time.”
The Braves went 21-4 in June, that’s .840 baseball, which makes it the best month in Braves baseball history, going back to their days in Boston and Milwaukee.* The Braves have only once before had a month with an .800-plus winning percentage, and that was June 2002, when they went 21-5. That was when Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were still at the top of their games, and John Smoltz had 55 saves that season.
*Minimum 15 games; I’m not talking about those Octobers or Marches when they went like 2-0.
And these Braves won in style. Ronald Acuña Jr. had a month so blindingly awesome, you gotta wear shades to look at it. He hit .356/.429/.683 with nine homers, 14 steals, 26 runs and 22 RBIs.
At this moment, Acuña in 81 games — a perfect half-season — has 20 home runs and 37 steals. Go ahead and double those numbers — never been a season like it, not even Eric Davis in 1986 (27 homers, 80 steals) or 1987 (37 homers, 50 steals). Wow wow wow.
Matt Olson hit 11 home runs in the month and now leads the National League in homers. Ozzie Albies slugged .557 and stole five bases without getting caught. The Braves started the month by winning seven of eight, then after a couple of losses they won eight in a row, then after a loss they have now won six in a row. They scored 10-plus runs six times and three of their four losses were by just one run.
That’s a pretty good month.
Best ever? No, probably not. If you want to go way back, you’d have to look at, say, the Yankees, in July of 1941 — when Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak was in full bloom.* Those Yankees went 25-4 in July, they began the month with a 12-game winning streak and later in the month had a nine-game winning streak. DiMaggio hit .442. Scooter, Phil Rizzuto, hit .383. Charlie Keller (who hated being called “King Kong Keller”) mashed 10 home runs. The aging Red Ruffing won all four of his starts.
*The streak did end on July 17 in Cleveland, but DiMaggio got a hit EVERY OTHER GAME in the month. Baseball trivia fans will know: After the 56-game hitting streak ended, Joe D. went on a 16-game hitting streak.
But we probably don’t want to go back that far — I mean, the 1931 Athletics had one hell of a May, the 1954 Giants had a great June, as did the 1909 Pirates, let’s talk instead about great months in the Expansion Era (1969 on). Here are, I think, the best of each month since then: