Matt Olson will step into Thursday afternoon’s series finale against the Pirates with something no Braves player has done in decades: he is set to play his 740th consecutive game and tie Dale Murphy’s franchise record. The streak has run without interruption since Olson arrived ahead of the 2022 season, and it reaches a new marker at the same time Atlanta is trying to finish a series before the All-Star Break on a winning note.
Olson’s durability gives the Braves a familiar presence in the middle of a lineup that changed only slightly after Wednesday’s 3-0 win. The top five hitters stayed the same, Drake Baldwin was back behind the plate, Dominic Smith moved to designated hitter and Jim Jarvis replaced Jorge Mateo at shortstop in the nine-hole. Against Mitch Keller, who entered 6-6 with a 5.02 ERA, the Braves also had a clear reason to keep Olson in place: he was 8-for-15 with a homer, a double and an RBI against the right-hander.
There is more at stake than one player’s streak. The Braves have scored the fifth most runs in MLB since the start of July, but they were also trying to win the series and build momentum before the break after losing their previous four rubber-match games. That made Thursday’s card feel bigger than a routine finale, even if the changes were modest. Bryce Elder, who entered 5-6 with a 4.01 ERA, got the start opposite Keller, and the matchup carried a familiar edge because Pittsburgh’s bats have not handled Elder well. Bryan Reynolds was the only Pirates hitter with double-digit at-bats against him, going 2-for-11, and the Pirates were 4-for-37 as a team with Elder on the mound.
The margins around the game were just as telling. The Pirates shuffled their own lineup, moving Ryan O’Hearn to designated hitter, bringing Tyler Callihan back in at first base and giving Rafael Flores Jr. the start behind the plate. Atlanta, meanwhile, kept the structure that worked Wednesday and trusted the same core to try to close out the series. Olson’s streak has become one of the quiet constants of this Braves stretch, and Thursday gave it a place on the same card as a team trying to turn run-scoring into a series win.
If the Braves finally break their rubber-match slide, Olson’s next game will simply extend the streak again. If they do not, the number still stands as the sharper story: a regular who has not missed a game since his arrival is now one appearance away from matching a franchise standard that has lasted long enough to make Thursday feel like a benchmark, not just a matinee.
