Braves vs. Guardians series recap: A powerful powder-blue beatdown

ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 10: Michael Harris II #23 and Dominic Smith #8 of the Atlanta Braves celebrate in the sixth inning during the game against the Cleveland Guardians at Truist Park on April 10, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Well here we are, folks — our Atlanta Braves are 16 games deep into this season and they are in a pretty solid groove. They’ve dropped at least one game to every team that they’ve played this season but they’ve also taken two games off of every team that they’ve played so far. That was also the case for their opponents this past weekend in the form of the Cleveland Guardians. Something had to give, as these were the last two teams in baseball who had yet to drop a series.

Let me tell you, it would’ve been a crying shame if the Braves were the ones who ended up dropping this series. I’m not saying that based on any type of underlying data or anything like that but I’m saying that because the vibes have been impeccable at Truist Park and The Battery since the new City Connect uniforms were officially unveiled on Thursday morning. Friday was 80s Night, Dale Murphy got some shine, T.I. was in the building on Saturday and the team was on prime time network television on Sunday. There were a lot of eyes on this series and this was a chance for the Braves to really show off for their home crowd. It’s time to get into just how the Braves fared during what ended up being a very fun weekend series.

Friday, April 10

Braves 11, Guardians 5

Atlanta debuted their clean new City Connect uniforms in stylish fashion, as a huge sixth inning in in this game and two more run-scoring innings following that allowed the Braves to pull away in this contest. It took a while for the Atlanta lineup to figure Slade Cecconi but once they did, it led to some real fireworks before the post-game Friday Night Fireworks in Cobb County.

It all started with Ronald Acuña Jr. hitting an absolute bomb for his first dinger of the season. As it turned out, that was the first of three homers in this inning alone and the shortest one of them all. Matt Olson put Acuña’s shot to shame as he hit a two-run dinger that landed on top of the Chop House. Michael Harris II’s moonshot with two outs made sure that the Braves left the inning leading by five after they entered it trailing by one.

Ozzie Albies and Dominic Smith both delivered RBI singles in the eighth inning to extend the lead and then Drake Baldwin and Austin Riley (with help from an error) made sure that any hope that the Guardians had after a three-run eighth inning of their own was snuffed out immediately. The bats had a major impact in this game and it made for some fun viewing on a special night at the ballpark.

Saturday, April 11

Guardians 6, Braves 0

If Friday night was a peak for the Braves then Saturday night was certainly a valley in terms of performance. Credit is due to the now-DFA’d Martín Pérez, who recovered from a first-inning homer from José Ramírez to go five innings while only giving up one run in the process.

That was about it for highlights as far as this game is concerned. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a triple but outside of that, the Braves had nothing to deal with Guardians starter Parker Messick and the rest of the Guardians pitching staff on this particular night. A disastrous ninth inning which saw the Guardians add on three runs was the icing on a poison-laced cake for the Braves in this one.

Sunday, April 12

Braves 13, Guardians 1

This was more like it from the Braves, as Atlanta’s first appearance on Sunday Night Baseball in 2026 felt like a bit of a statement game from the guys in powder blue. The pitching matchup was a strong one as Chris Sale was tasked with keeping Cleveland quiet while the Braves had to figure out a way to take down Tanner Bibee.

As you can tell by the gaudy scoreline above, the Braves ended up taking Bibee and the rest of the Guardians’ pitching staff out behind the woodshed. This was Atlanta’s night nearly from the words “Play Ball,” as the Braves plated three runs in the second inning thanks to RBI doubles from Mauricio Dubón and Ronald Acuña Jr. and a Jorge Mateo RBI single sandwiched in there as well. Mateo drove in Dubón to make it 2-0 — just like we all predicted back in February, right?

The fun was nowhere near over after that second inning outburst. There were still a few more outbursts to come — Dominic Smith cracked a dinger to make it 5-0 in the fourth inning and then Atlanta pushed four more runs across the plate in the fifth inning with two runs on the board.

Bibee ended up with eight runs conceded off 11 hits and one walk allowed and things didn’t get much better for our old friend Kolby Allard, either. The Braves tagged him for five runs, with four of those coming in the eighth inning. Things really got out of hand at that point, as Atlanta loaded up the bases with nobody out to start the inning and took full advantage of it in order to bring them to their final tally of 13 runs on the night.

While the Braves were busy battering Bibee, Chris Sale went cruising as he eventually finished with six innings (including his 2,600th career strikeout) and just one run allowed. The Guardians put some traffic on the baepaths with eight hits against Sale but any time that they came close to getting something going, Sale would put the clamps down on Cleveland in order to keep the door shut. Cleveland went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and also left five runnings in scoring position throughout. The only breakthrough for the Guardians was a solo homer for Rhys Hoskins but all that did was make it a 9-1 game for the Braves at that point. outside of that, this was a dominant display from the Braves in front of a national audience on network television. Boom.

That’s about as comprehensive of a series win as you can get without it being a sweep. The Braves were clearly the better team across the course of three games and that’s even including the loss where the offense got completely blanked. Parker Messick’s brilliant start was essentially the exception rather than the rule for Cleveland in this series, as the Braves were otherwise locked in at the plate. Ronald Acuña Jr. racked up six hits across the three games with three of them being of the extra-base variety, no less. Austin Riley collected four hits in this series as well — those are two players who the Braves need to get rolling and if they both end up going on a tear in the near future, this could be the point in time that you could look at as being the genesis of it all.

The offense coming alive was huge since this wasn’t a completely pristine performance from the pitching staff. Chris Sale did a great job of limiting the damage that the Guardians threatened to do on Sunday night and Martín Pérez did well to cover five innings on Saturday evening. Outside of that, it was a bit of a shaky weekend for the pitching. Bryce Elder was lifted up by his lineup as he only made it through 4.2 innings on Friday night and the bullpen had a lot of work to do during the first two games of this series. It was mostly good work though and for what it’s worth, this staff as a whole has earned the benefit of the doubt to be less-than-perfect for a series after getting off to a fantastic start to begin the season. I’m not complaining too much since it’s not like the Braves had a disasterclass during this series on the mound but it’s also something to keep a close eye on going forward in terms of quality.

Outside of what feels like nitpicking, this was a fantastic series for the Braves. They’re now one of only three teams with 10 wins so far this season with the other two being the Dodgers (because, duh) and the Padres (who got off to flying start last season as well). Atlanta’s rough start to the 2025 season is a thing of the distant past as this Braves team. appears determined to make sure that whatever momentum they have lasts for as long as possible. They still have yet to drop a series but this upcoming week could be another tricky one. Atlanta will be hosting the Marlins up next and while they’ve slowed down and gone 3-7 over their last 10, this squad would love nothing more than to trip up the Braves early on. Once the Braves get done with Miami, they’ll be traveling to Philadelphia for the weekend and that’s always a tough trip in any given season.

The Braves will certainly have their work cut out for them when it comes to maintain this series winning streak but with the way this team has looked to start the season, would you wager against them keeping it going through this next week? We’ll have to see what happens but right now, this is a team that looks like it means business going forward. The uniforms look clean as well. Everything’s looking really spiffy right now, folks.