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The Atlanta Braves did this week what they also did last week: take a series from the Chicago Cubs. In Atlanta, they won the first two games and got blown out when they couldn’t finish off a sweep; at Wrigley Field, they dropped the first game and took the next two.

Pitching remains a strength

Overall, the Braves did what they’ve done to rack up wins even as the bats have struggled to get the results they were hoping for: keep the opposing team off the board.

Charlie Morton got blown out in the finale against the Cubs in Atlanta, but bounced back with a nice outing where he struck out eight in five innings and kept the ball in the yard. Sure, he walked four, but he also kept things manageable despite spotty defense behind him. The Braves ended up losing the game, but mostly due to a lack of scoring and some strange reliever choices.

Max Fried then threw a complete game in an eventual blowout, going 15-up, 15-down to start and finishing with a stellar 9/0 K/BB ratio. The Braves followed that with a well-managed and even-better-pitched game where AJ Smith-Shawver and five relievers combined to shut the Cubs out while striking out nine and walking just three. Smith-Shawver was fortunate to get some big outs on fly balls in sequences where the defense and/or his command caused the water to get a little hotter, but was ultimately effective across 18 batters faced. The bullpen, meanwhile, was allowed to do what they weren’t really deployed for in the series opener, and locked it down from there.

With today’s effort, the Braves have now clambered into the top ten among MLB teams by pitching fWAR. Their pitching triple-slash line is 80/94/93, marks which are fourth, sixth, and fifth, respectively. They’ve been a top-five pitching staff over the last two weeks (not counting today) as well as over the last month.