Last Night in Baseball: Braves Blow Out the D-Backs, Set 2026’s Scoring High

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Thanks to early season scheduling weirdness, there were just four games on Thursday. Except one of those was then rained out, meaning, we had just three games. Luckily, all three delivered in very different ways, so there is plenty to pull from them for your next-day entertainment. The Braves offense went off The Braves struck early against the Diamondbacks, as Atlanta was up 2-1 after three innings. In the fifth, though, the Braves made it a whole lot more difficult for Arizona to keep up — they plated eight runs in that one inning, and then scored another seven before running out of innings to cause damage in. Atlanta would win, 17-2, accomplishing two things besides a plain, old W: that’s the most runs anyone has scored in a game yet in 2026, and it’s the first time since 2001 that every member of the Braves’ starting lineup managed to drive in at least one run, per MLB. The fifth inning was a disaster for Arizona. Second baseman Ozzie Albies challenged a strike call and had it overturned to a ball, giving him a leadoff walk. Center fielder Michael Harris II would then line out, but that was the only good news for the Diamondbacks for a while. DH Dominic Smith would also walk, then shortstop Mauricio Dubon reached on a fielder’s choice that didn’t earn an out, but instead loaded the bases thanks to an error by third baseman Nolan Arenado. Right fielder Ronald Acuna would then draw another walk, bringing in a run, and then another scored on a ground out by catcher Drake Baldwin. First baseman Matt Olson would follow with an RBI double, bringing about a pitching change for Arizona, but Kevin Ginkel didn’t have any more luck than Ryne Nelson did. Third baseman Austin Riley doubled in two runs to make it 7-1 Braves, then left fielder Mike Yastzremski walked. Albies, up for the second time in the inning, singled in a run, then Harris made up for his first out with a 2-run double. It was 10-1 Braves at this point, and Smith would make the third, merciful out of the inning to put a stop to the scoring. At least temporarily: two more runs were scored in the sixth, then the Braves plated another five off of Diamondbacks’ catcher James McCann, who was only on the mound because it was already 12-1 at that point and Arizona had just three outs left to score another 11. Hey, it wasn’t all Braves, all the time. Diamondbacks’ left fielder Jordan Lawlar hit his first MLB home run in the third inning to cut the lead to 2-1 — this is Lawlar’s third season with time in the majors, but this is the first time he’s been playing like someone who can stick. Baldwin makes Braves’ history While Drake Baldwin might have gone just 1-for-5 on the night, he was actually on base multiple times — his ground out in the fifth forced someone else to go back to the dugout, not him, and he grounded into a force out in the sixth, as well. He scored each time he got on. He just needed the first of those to match a bit of Braves’ history, however, as it gave him a run scored in each of Atlanta’s first seven games of the season. The last time that happened? In 1957, when a guy named Henry Aaron pulled it off. To put it another way, they weren’t even the Atlanta Braves back then, but still playing in Milwaukee. That’s some pretty good company for Baldwin to keep. Baldwin, by the way, is batting .286/.375/.643 with an NL-leading three homers and 18 total bases to start the year, even with the 1-for-5 showing on Thursday. A pretty great start for following up on an impressive rookie campaign, that. Ouch Baseball isn’t meant to be a contact sport, but sometimes it still plays out that way. Ask Kody Clemens, Twins first baseman, about that one. On a slide into second on a stolen base attempt in the fifth, Clemens’ face smashed right into the ground before shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. could apply the tag, and he ended up cutting his nose. It’s difficult to see at full speed — it actually looks from the original angle like it maybe happened when Witt tagged him out — but the slowed down view from another angle shows Clemens taking “head-first slide” a bit too literally, knocking his helmet off and cutting himself up because of it. He stayed in the game, though, so he was fine besides some blood. Well, besides some blood and getting called out on a challenge by the Royals, anyway. Hey, in the end, the Twins won. So even though this play didn’t work out for Clemens or his face, he still came out ahead. That’s some wind Also in Kansas City on Thursday? Wind. Just so much wind. The below clip is not of a camera operator forgetting how to do their job, but of them desperately trying to keep a camera caught in high-velocity winds steady. Not only was there the wind to contend with, but the fountains out in center field at Kauffman Stadium had their waters blown all over the place, including all over the camera lens. It got to the point that Minnesota’s broadcast of the game switched to the cameras behind home plate to continue to show what was going on during at-bats — the lenses out in center were getting soaked and had to be wiped, so it’s not like the traditional view was, at that moment, better than the behind-the-plate one. At least Minnesota and Kansas City got to play at all, though — the White Sox had to delay their home opener against the Blue Jays to Friday, which is why there were just the three games last night. A big game for Susac Giants’ catcher Daniel Susac made his first-ever start on Thursday, spelling starting catcher Patrick Bailey behind the plate in the series opener against the Mets. The 24-year-old rookie — and nearly 25 — had appeared in one game already this season, but didn’t come to the plate. Here, he made the most of this first opportunity: Susac went 3-for-3 with a walk. Even better, his family was in the stands to see the whole thing. What’s a little funny is that Susac didn’t drive in a run or get driven in at all — well, okay, that sort of thing probably feels pretty standard to Giants’ fans, the whole stranding runners thing, but on Thursday, at least, it didn’t hurt them. Susac succeeded at the plate again and again, and even though it happened seemingly adjacent to the rest of San Francisco’s performance instead of as part of it, the Giants still ended up winning 7-2, as six other players recorded an RBI and five scored runs. One of those? Devers Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers was one of those other players, as he went deep in the bottom of the sixth to put the Giants up 7-2 in the first place. It was Devers’ first dinger of the year, in what has been a solid but not outstanding start. But hey, better than last year’s slow start, right?