The Atlanta Braves are on a roll. 

With a sweep against Florida in Miami last week, along with three straight wins at Houston, Atlanta has won six consecutive and is steadily catching up on the NL East’s first place Philadelphia Phillies. 

Heading into today’s action, the Phillies are only two games up of Atlanta for first place in the East. 

One reason for Atlanta’s surge is the regularity of home runs during its streak. Against Houston last Friday, the Braves hit four home runs. Then on Saturday against Houston, the Braves hit two more home runs, including Brian McCann’s 10th-inning shot to win it. McCann and Dan Uggla both homered in Sunday’s win, as well.

Atlanta wraps up its seven-game road trip against Houston at 8 tonight. Pitching for the Braves tonight is Derek Lowe, who is 3-4 with a 3.73 ERA. 

In his last outing, Lowe carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning before giving up two singles and pitched 6 2/3 innings of scoreless work. The Braves ended up winning 3-2 when Freddie Freeman singled home the winning run in the 10th inning. 

The remainder of this week, Atlanta faces the Mets at home for three games, followed by the Texas Rangers for another three-game set. 

GWINNETT BRAVES: The Triple-A G-Braves had been on a tear lately, until a seven-game win streak was snapped by back-to-back weekend losses at Indianapolis. 

Gwinnett wraps up its road trip with games at Indianapolis today and Tuesday. After a day off on Wednesday, the G-Braves return home for a four-game set to wrap up the week against the Durham Bulls at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville. 

Entering today, Durham leads the G-Braves by 1/2 game in the International League South division.