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The Cubs and Braves are set to face off in a highly anticipated series, both holding the best records in the National League after 41 games this season. This matchup promises to be exciting as both teams have exceeded expectations early on.
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Raise your hand if you knew that 41 games into the season â one-quarter of the way â the Braves and Cubs would have the two best records in the National League.
I better not see any hands raised because, no, you didnât know that. None of us did.
But that should make this a good matchup for this early in the season.
For more on the Braves, hereâs Demetrius Bell, manager of our SB Nation Braves site Battery Power.
Itâs been a long time (well, a long time for Braves fans) since Atlantaâs looked this good. Despite coming into this series with all types of injury concerns and a lot of legitimate concerns about the pitching staff being able to compete at a high level, things have gone extremely well for the Braves to get this season started. Their 25-10 start through 35 games is actually the best start theyâve had to a season since 1892 (!!!) and while they did end up dropping a series to the Mariners last week, they ended a 6-3 road trip out West with a somewhat comprehensive series win in Los Angeles over the Dodgers. They hadnât even won a game at Dodger Stadium since 2023 â much less a series. The Braves are rolling and thereâs a real sense of excitement about the team at the moment.
While there was plenty of concern about the pitching staff and the lack of offseason moves that were made to address the questions surrounding the rotation, this appears to have been all part of the plan for Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos. He stated multiple times that he figured that the problem all along for the Braves over their past two seasons had been their lack of hitting (compared to how they mashed the ball in 2022 and 2023). Well, here we are in 2026 and right now, theyâre one of the top-hitting teams in all of baseball according to wRC+, wOBA, xwOBA and Isolated Power.
Both the Cubs and Braves have the best records in the National League after 41 games this season.
This series is significant because both teams are performing unexpectedly well, making it an exciting matchup for fans.
Demetrius Bell is the manager of the SB Nation Braves site Battery Power.
The Cubs and Braves have each played 41 games this season, which is one-quarter of the way through the season.

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Matt Olson is playing like the best first baseman (and one of the best players, overall) in baseball at the moment, Drake Baldwin is starting to establish himself as an elite-hitting catcher, Michael Harris II is looking more like the star-caliber player he was during the second half of 2025 instead of the genuinely-awful player he was during the first half of that season and Ozzie Albies is on track for a big-time bounce-back season. Mauricio DubĂłn has been surprisingly good at the plate as well and theyâve been getting timely hitting from the bench. Walt Weiss has been pushing all the right buttons for most of this squad and some of his pinch hitting/running choices have paid off in spades.
Pitching-wise, Chris Sale has continued to be consistently good but Bryce Elder has surprisingly been the top guy in the rotation so far. Spencer Strider is back and he looked great during his outing against the Dodgers, so he may be back as well. The questions surrounding the rotation have persisted and that could be Atlantaâs downfall in this series considering that theyâve been going on a series-by-series revolving door of starting pitcher in the back end of their rotation but so far theyâve been relying on MartĂn PĂ©rez and JR Ritchie to deliver as well. The bullpen has been solid and again, Walt Weiss is managing like someone who understands what high-leverage and low-leverage is.
The fact that theyâve done all of this with Austin Riley mostly struggling, Ronald Acuña Jr. looking like a normal human being instead of a supernova, Sean Murphy having only played a handful of games and Ha-Seong Kim having played no games is really impressive in my view. Iâd say that we havenât seen this teamâs ceiling quite yet, which is exciting for us Braves fans. The Cubs are going to be tough, though and I am really looking forward to seeing how this series shakes out. It should be a fun one!
The Cubsâ next loss to the Braves will be their 900th since 1901, the first season of the Modern Era.
If it comes in this series, it will be their 600th on the road vs. the Braves since 1876, when both were charter members of the new National League. The Cubs have lost exactly 600 on the road against the Phillies.
They have won 556 when visiting the Braves. They are 700-466 at home, for a total record of 1,256-1,065-18. That .541 winning percentage is the Cubsâ second highest against a current NL opponent. They are .544 (285-239) vs. the Padres, who began play in 1969.
Last year, the Cubs won two of three at Atlanta. It was their first series win there since 2018. In 2019-24, they were 3-13.
(Courtesy BCBâs JohnW53)
Tuesday: Colin Rea, RHP (4-1, 4.03 ERA, 1.368 WHIP, 3.68 FIP) vs. Grant Holmes, RHP (2-1, 4.34 ERA, 1.313 WHIP, 5.03 FIP)
Wednesday: ShĆta Imanaga, LHP (4-2, 2.28 ERA, 0.930 WHIP, 2.81 FIP) vs. JR Ritchie, RHP (1-0, 3.63 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 6.88 FIP)
Thursday: Ben Brown, RHP (1-1, 1.82 ERA, 0.910 WHIP, 2.66 FIP) vs. Chris Sale, LHP (6-2, 2.20 ERA, 0.878 WHIP, 3.48 FIP)
Tuesday: 6:15 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, TBS (outside the Cubs and Braves market territories)
Wednesday: 6:15 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Thursday: 6:15 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, Peacock (streaming, Braves broadcast, outside the Cubs and Braves market territories)
This series will be a good test for the Cubs, as they come in one game behind Atlanta for the best record in the NL.
The Cubs appear to have the advantage re: pitching matchups in two of these three, so Iâm picking that, even though the Cubs have not done well at Truist Park historically (10-15 all-time there, though as noted by John, they did win two of three in Atlanta last year).
Also, the Cubs are 21-9 in games started by RHP and just 6-5 vs. games started by LHP, even though overall their OPS vs. LHP (.804) is better than their OPS vs. RHP (.746).