Last Night in Baseball: And here come the Braves

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves. 

That's why we're here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days' games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

The Braves are over .500

If it feels like it took forever to get to this point, well, it did. And it felt even longer for Braves fans. The Atlanta Braves were supposed to be a contender out of the gate, but instead, they began the 2025 season by losing seven in a row before finally winning their eighth game of the season. Things were still a bit up and down for a bit there, but thanks to a 9-3 run to end April and a 7-5 start to May, the Braves have finally reached the .500 mark for the first time this season, thanks to a 5-2 win over the Nationals on Tuesday. 

It might seem like it's not all that big a deal, but consider some context. The Braves are just 6.5 games behind the Mets in the NL East with what was possibly their worst stretch of the season behind them. They're just 3.5 back of the second-place Phillies, which means they're just 3.5 back of a wild card spot, too. With a whole lot of season left to play.

Shortstop Ronald Acuña, who has been recovering from a torn ACL suffered in late-May a year ago, just began a rehab assignment and should be back in Atlanta's lineup before too much more of the season passes by. Acuña, in his last full season, stole 73 bases and hit 41 homers in a campaign that won him National League MVP honors. Even if he's not exactly that player again, Acuña can be a difference maker in a lineup that has, to this point, gotten a .236/.282/.271 line from its shortstops – it is far and away their weakest position over the season's first 42 games, to the point that if Acuña was merely league-average at the plate, he'd be a significant upgrade. Never mind if he looks more like the version of himself that's already made four All-Star teams and netted a trio of Silver Slugger awards. 

Spencer Strider – who led the league in strikeouts in 2023 but started this year late thanks to recovery from elbow surgery, and then hit the IL again due to a hamstring strain – should be returning to the Braves' rotation soon if a simulated game on Wednesday goes well, per MLB.com. The Braves have reinforcements coming, is the thing, meaningful ones, so getting things into a position where those reinforcements are helping a .500 team get into postseason contention, rather than dragging them back to .500, is a big deal. That they got back to .500 at all is something: just four teams have ever started off the season 0-7 and then reached .500 at any point in the season, and just one – the 1945 Red Sox – got their faster than the 2025 Braves, per MLB. So maybe it felt like it took forever to get here, but the opposite is true!

There's a lot of season left, of course, and the Braves could end up sliding in the wrong direction once more. Still, though, after an 0-7 start, to get to .500 without the most important injured players even coming back yet, and at the pace the Braves have? That's a good sign for Atlanta and their chances of contending by the time this season is over.

So. Many. Walkoffs. 

You know that there were an inordinate number of walk-off hits in one night if MLB bothered to compile a video rounding them all up in one place.

Five walk-offs! Five! Fernando Tatis Jr. got his first career walk-off homer, as the Padres bounced back from Monday's ninth-inning disaster against the Angels with a 6-4 win. The Mariners walked off the Yankees in the 11th inning, when shortstop J.P. Crawford hit a line-drive single to left, scoring Leody Taveras – that was Crawford's lone hit of the day, in what had been a struggle to that point with four outs, three of them by way of the K. 

Nico Hoerner singled in Carson Kelly in the bottom of the ninth against the Marlins, setting up Justin Turner to double in a pair of runs with the Cubs down 4-3. Chicago wins, 5-3. Isaac Paredes got his first walk-off homer for the Astros, and even called his own shot to his teammates before he did it.

And as for the fifth walk-off…

Let's hear it for Javier Báez's bounce-back year 

A brutal week for Boston sports fans continued Tuesday night. The Red Sox had come back to tie or take the lead in Detroit in six different innings, including the top of the 10th and 11th, only to watch Javier Báez break their hearts with a three-run blast to walk it off for the Tigers. 

Tigers' Javier Báez belts a walk-off homer vs. Red Sox

That was part of a two-homer, six-RBI night for Baez, who was serenaded with "Ja-vy! Ja-vy!" chants by the home crowd. 

That was quite a different response from the Tigers faithful than in Baez's previous seasons in Detroit. The infielder-turned-center fielder joined the Tigers in 2022 on a big-time deal (six years, $140M) and had mostly disappointed in his first three seasons due to injuries and a combined .221 batting average. The fans sometimes showed their displeasure by booing him. 

Baez has enjoyed a resurgent season so far in 2025, though. The 32-year-old, who underwent hip surgery last year, is hitting better than ever with a .319 batting average. And he's been clutch for the team with the best record in baseball. Not only did Baez deliver the game-winner, but he also crushed another three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, with two outs, that gave the Tigers a two-run cushion at the time. 

After Tuesday night, he's now hitting .424 with three home runs and 24 RBIs with runners in scoring position. He's been even better (.583) with runners in scoring position and two outs. 

It's hard not to be happy for Baez — unless of course, you happen to be a Boston fan.

Ballesteros' parents attend his debut

Also within the Cubs' victory over the Marlins was the debut of prospect Moisés Ballesteros. His parents had come up from Venezuela under the assumption that they would see him play for Triple-A Iowa, but no: the Cubs had called him up, so instead, they got to see his big-league debut. 

Sure, Ballesteros went 0-for-4 in his debut, but it's not like his parents are able to watch him play any old night. 0-fer aside, a special night for the 21-year-old prospect.

Wilson got to have it both ways

Jacob Wilson plays for the Athletics, but he's from the Los Angeles area, and used to attend Dodgers games as a kid. So, traveling with the A's to the home of the Dodgers for the first time in his career has to be something special for the 23-year-old rookie on its own, but he made it that much more special with his performance. Not for the Dodgers, though.

The Dodgers would lose 11-1 in a rout by the A's, and a not insignificant portion of that damage came from the bat of Wilson. The shortstop would collect four hits in five trips to the plate, scoring a pair of runs and driving in four thanks to a pair of homers and singles. 

He's now hitting .363/.389/.513 on the season with five roundtrippers and a 158 OPS+, numbers that have helped the A's to a surprise second-place showing and 22-20 record in the AL West. Whether Wilson's season continues on like this is unknown – he was quite the high-average hitter in the minors, but the majors are a different beast – but the A's will take it for as long as that kind of production is here. The Dodgers probably hope to see a little bit less of it, but hey. Not your call, Dodgers, don't you get your way often enough as it is?

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