The Atlanta Braves are smoking hot right now, and it all begins with their leadoff hitter, rookie Ronald Acuna, Jr. Acuna led off the second game of the doubleheader with a homerun to left-centerfield, after leading off game 1 with a long-ball to right-center field. Acuna has now homered in 4 straight games, the youngest player in MLB history to do so. The rookie went 5-8 on Monday with 5 RBIs.

Not to be outdone by rookie Touki Toussaint, who pitched a hell of a game in his MLB debut earlier in the day, All-Star Mike Foltynewicz threw 8 strong innings in the 6-1 drumming of the Marlins to pick up his 3rd win in a row and 10th win on the season. Folty consistently hit 98/99 MPH on his fastball and his offspeed pitches were on point for the most part, as he allowed just 5 hits and 3 walks while fanning 7 batters.

Great start tonight by Folty. Check out these numbers. 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/d1wHv7K6dL — FOX Sports: Braves (@FOXSportsBraves) August 14, 2018

Back to the first inning, following Acuna’s leadoff dinger, Ozzie Albies and Nick Markakis both delivered singles, before Johan Camargo drove Albies home with a single to left, giving Atlanta a 2-0 after 1 inning.

Merandy Gonzalez, the Marlins pitcher making his first career MLB start, got back on track after the rocky first inning, and he and Folty both pitched well until Acuna and Albies came back up to the plate in the bottom of the 5th inning.

More: Braves Offense En Fuego, A Look At The Stats

After back-to-back singles put Acuna and Albies on 1st and 3rd, respectively, NL MVP candidate Freddie Freeman drove in a run with an RBI single. The lone Marlins run came in the top of the 6th, when Folty walked J.T. Realmuto and gave up an RBI double to left field from Starlin Castro.

The Braves answered in the bottom of the 6th, as Camargo recorded his 20th double on the season and continues to impress from both sides of the plate. Folty helped himself with an RBI single to right, before Acuna once again delivered with an RBI single of his own to score Dansby Swanson who had been intentionally walked so the Marlins could face Foltynewicz and pushed the Braves lead to 5-1.

Freddie Freeman closed out the scoring in the bottom of the 7th, with an absolute monster-bomb, that travelled 441 feet to deep center for his 19th and longest homer on the season, and 74th RBI on the year.

Like I stated in the opening sentence, the Braves are on absolute fire right now, and of course it helps that they are currently playing the Marlins, who are just hoping to get to the end of the season as soon as the possibly can at this point. Atlanta has won 3 straight, is 7-3 in the last 10 games, 12-4 in the last 16 games and have a 1 game lead over the Phillies for first place in the NL East for the first time since July 5.

More to come on the overall season statistics tomorrow, but Markakis, Freeman, and Albies are 1-2-3 atop the National League in hits for the entire season, add in a scorching hot Ronald Acuna to go along with the consistency of Johan Camargo, and the Braves have themselves a lineup that can win any game on any given day. Then you factor in the starting pitchers have an ERA of just 3.00 over the last 15 games and the bullpen is sitting at an ERA of 3.46, per the Fox Sports broadcast, and you start to realize that the Braves just might be pulling everything together at the best damn time possible.

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{Photo Credit: John Bazemore, AP}

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