Matt Olson was announced as the National League co-player of the week on Monday, sharing the award with Philadelphia’s Michael Lorenzen. Olson batted .400 from August 6-13, hitting four home runs and adding 10 runs and 10 RBIs.
Such was Olson’s dominance that Lorenzen threw a no-hitter and only earned a share of the award.
The four home runs extended Olson’s major league-leading total to 43. He entered the week trailing Shohei Ohtani, who has 41. He also improved his league-leading RBI total to 107, 17 ahead of teammate Ozzie Albies in second. He’s slugging .800 since the All-Star break, 70 points better than anyone else in the majors.
It’s the first time this season Olson has earned player of the week honors. It’s the fifth time a Brave has won the award, but more impressively, Olson is the fifth different Brave to win it. Sean Murphy, Michael Harris II, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley each won earlier this season.
Olson has won player of the week once before. He won it in 2022 during the last week of the season.
Local kid returns home
Monday night’s opposing pitcher grew up rooting for the Braves.
The Yankees’ Clarke Schmidt is from Acworth, less than a half hour from Truist Park. He lives in Atlanta during the offseason, 15 minutes from the ballpark, and is staying at home during the series. He said he claimed tickets for between 40-50 friends and family members for Monday’s game.
“I might be playing for free this week,” a smiling Schmidt told reporters, joking about the amount of tickets. “It’ll be great to see everyone and catch up, and it’s very exciting.”
Schmidt grew up idolizing Chipper Jones and wore number 10 at Allatoona High School. His pitching hero was Tim Hudson, who pitched for the Braves from 2005 to 2013.
He acknowledged the Braves’ offensive prowess, saying it’d be “a good challenge.” He said that, regardless of the result, he’d learn from it.
Injury updates
Braves manager Brian Snitker gave a few injury updates before Monday’s game. Reliever Jesse Chavez is throwing off a mound, while starter Kyle Wright is throwing light batting practice.
Wright is still several weeks away from returning, as he’s just begun throwing to hitters. He’s in Florida practicing with the Braves’ Florida Complex League affiliate.
Catcher Murphy was not in the starting lineup after suffering a cut in Sunday’s game. He stayed in the game after being hit in the back of the head. He was bloodied, which he said was likely from the PitchCom device in his helmet.
The Braves ruled out a concussion, as Murphy correctly answered several questions on the field immediately after. His absence from the lineup is likely just due to the Braves’ normal catcher rotation.
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