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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
ATLANTA — It wasn’t Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson or another big Atlanta Braves slugger who made history, but it was history nonetheless, when left fielder Kevin Pillar hammered a 3-1 pitch from Chicago Cubs starter Justin Steele into the left field stands in the sixth inning on Tuesday for the team’s 300th home run this season.
The Braves are the first National League team to reach that mark and just the third team overall, behind the 2019 Twins and Yankees who hit 307 and 306 home runs, respectively.
Atlanta has done it with a balanced attack led by Olson who has 53 long balls. Four other players have at least 30 home runs including 40 from Acuna while two more have at least 20. Pillar’s blast was his ninth of the season. One more from him in the final week of the season will give the Braves 11 players with at least 10 homers this season.
The Braves have five more games after Tuesday to tie or break the record set by the Twins.
In the seventh inning, Acuna Jr. hit a two-run homer to push the total to 301.