Last Night in Baseball: Braves Roar Back and a Barry Bonds Record

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: The Colorado Rockies put up five runs on Atlanta Braves right-hander Grant Holmes in the first inning and led 6-2 entering the eighth inning. Then, it happened. A bases-clearing triple from Mauricio Dubón and a sacrifice fly from Austin Riley tied the game at 6-all in the top of the eighth inning. Following a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth, outfielder Michael Harris II pinch hit for the Braves and put the Rockies out of their misery with a two-run home run to right field, which put Atlanta up for good, 8-6. The homer by Harris capped off eight unanswered runs for the Braves, who improved to 23-10 with the comeback victory and own the best record in the sport. They’re the only team in the NL East with a winning record. On the season, Harris has totaled seven home runs and 22 RBIs, while boasting a .324/.358/.569 slash line. Elsewhere, Braves first baseman Matt Olson hit his team-high 10th home run of the season; he also has a team-high 29 RBIs. Ildemaro Vargas is one of the best stories of the 2026 season. The 34-year-old infielder, who’s in his second season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, finished Friday’s day game at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs 4 for 4 (four singles) and reached base in each of his five plate appearances. By the way, those four hits were all singles. In doing so, he now has a hit in each of the 24 games he has appeared in this season and has a 27-game hitting streak dating back to 2025. On the season, Vargas leads MLB with a .404 batting average and is in an eight-way tie for ninth with 38 hits. He has also driven in 21 runs and recorded just 11 strikeouts. Oh, and Ted Lasso was at the game to see Vargas. Granted, his Diamondbacks lost 6-5. It was a team effort for the Cleveland Guardians to get a road victory against the Athletics. For starters, Cleveland used seven pitchers to get through the game, immediately going behind the eight-ball after A’s designated hitter and 2025 All-Star Brent Rooker hit a two-run home run off starter Joey Cantillo in the bottom of the first. But rookie outfielder Chase DeLauter — who finished the night 4 for 4 and reached base in each of his five plate appearances — leveled the score at two apiece with a two-run double in the top of the second. Three innings later, Guardians designated hitter Rhys Hoskins leveled the score at 4-all with a two-run double and later hit a solo home run as part of a three-run seventh inning for Cleveland. The Athletics had the Guardians on the brink of disaster in the bottom of the seventh, though. Having already scored a run in the inning, the Athletics had the bases loaded with the go-ahead run at the plate. Then, outfielder Colby Thomas lifted a ball to the center field wall, but four-time Gold Glover Steven Kwan made a leaping grab to get Cleveland out of the inning. The Guardians went on to win, 8-5. On the season, DeLauter, who made his MLB debut for Cleveland during the 2025 Wild Card Series and was its 2022 first-round pick, leads the Guardians with 20 RBIs, while owning a .524 slugging percentage. The dramatic win in Sacramento puts the Guardians in first place in the AL Central but with a mere 17-16 record. History was made on the A’s side in the aforementioned game, as first baseman and 2025 AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz drew a walk for a 20th consecutive game, a record that ties Barry Bonds (2002-03) — who hit an MLB-record 762 home runs — for the second-longest such streak in the history of the sport since walks were officially recorded (1910 in the NL and 1913 in the AL) and surpasses Ted Williams, according to MLB.com. Roy Cullenbine has the record with 22 straight games with a walk, achieving the feat in 1947. While he’s hitting just .236 and has 26 hits compared to 46 strikeouts, Kurtz has a .417 on-base percentage through his first 31 games this year. His 34 walks lead MLB. Do you like home runs? We do, too, and Friday night was full of them! In fact, three players across the sport hit two home runs, one of them being the No. 1 pick in the 2021 MLB Draft: Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Henry Davis, who entered Friday with no home runs on the season and just 17 in his career. While behind the plate for Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller’s gem of an outing (he surrendered just one run and four baserunners across seven innings), Davis, who was in the nine hole, launched a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the third and hit a laser over the left field wall for a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth in what was a 9-1 win for Pittsburgh over the Cincinnati Reds, who entered the series in first place in the NL Central. For the Toronto Blue Jays, rookie third baseman Kazuma Okamoto was the star of a 7-3 road victory over the Minnesota Twins. His first home run came in the top of the fourth, as he launched a pitch over the left field wall. Okamoto reached the batter’s box again in the fifth and homered once more, smacking a home run to left, this one bringing in two runs. A bright spot for the Twins was outfielder Byron Buxton hitting his ninth home run in 16 games. And the third two-homer performance came from Seattle Mariners star Julio Rodriguez, who gave his team a much-needed jolt in the wake of starter Bryan Woo giving up four runs in the top of the first with a two-run shot into the upper level of T-Mobile Park in the bottom of the inning. Later, in the bottom of the seventh, Rodriguez tied the game at 6-all with a two-run blast to center. However, his heroics came in a 7-6 loss for Seattle, which now has a losing record (16-17). On the long ball front, Chicago White Sox rookie first baseman Munetaka Murakami continues to obliterate baseballs. Murakami, who leads MLB in home runs, hit his 13th long ball of the year in the top of the second off San Diego Padres right-hander German Marquez, uncorking a knuckle curve over the right-center field wall. It was a three-run shot that put the finishing touches on a six-run inning for Chicago in an eventual 8-2 win. As for how the White Sox got their other five runs, outfielder Sam Antonacci singled in a run, with a force out and a sacrifice fly accounting for the first three runs of the six-run second inning before Murakami’s three-run shot. Later, shortstop Colson Montgomery hit a solo home run in the fifth and outfielder Tristan Peters drove in a run in the eighth. True, Murakami has 27 hits compared to 46 strikeouts and is hitting just .239. At the same time, he owns a .383 on-base percentage and a .584 slugging percentage, which is eighth in the sport. Moreover, he ranks in the 100th percentile of MLB in hard-hit percentage and in the 99th percentile in average exit velocity and barrel percentage. Not too bad. If this were an AC/DC song, it would be “High Voltage.” In the bottom of the fourth, Tampa Bay Rays star third baseman Junior Caminero torched a fastball above the strike zone from San Francisco Giants left-hander Robbie Ray, sending it 432 feet to left field at 112.9 mph off the bat. Caminero’s long ball was one of two for the Rays, who won 3-0; Yandy Diaz hit an opposite field, solo home run for Tampa Bay in the bottom of the second. Caminero’s fourth inning homer was his ninth of the season; he hit 45 home runs last season. The Rays are off to an impressive start, sitting second in the AL East at 19-12. Add this one to the collection. New Miami Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis threw out the first pitch for the Miami Marlins’ Friday night matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies and the pitch was, well, high and wide. Not quite 50 Cent bad. Still, a rough one to watch, though. Willis signed a three-year, $67.5 million deal with the Dolphins to be their starting quarterback in March after spending the previous two seasons with the Green Bay Packers (2024-25), primarily serving as the backup quarterback to Jordan Love, which was preceded by two seasons with the Tennessee Titans (2022-23). As for the baseball game that transpired, Miami lost the NL East matchup to Philadelphia, 6-5, falling to 15-17 but still second in the division. With each passing day, the New York Mets’ 2026 campaign seems to get worse. Well, Ronny Mauricio gave them something to smile about on Friday night. In the top of the seventh, Mauricio — who struck out to end the Mets’ Thursday afternoon loss at home to the Washington Nationals — blasted a go-ahead, solo home run to center field, putting New York up to stay over the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3. It was Mauricio’s first home run of the season. The previous inning, New York scored three runs to even the scoreboard at 3-all before the shortstop put the Mets ahead in the seventh. Prior to the comeback triumph in Anaheim, the Mets had lost 17 of their previous 20 games, a drought that began with a 12-game losing streak. The Milwaukee Brewers didn’t execute a team no-hitter, but they carried one into the seventh inning on the road against the Nationals. Jacob Misiorowski got the starting nod for Milwaukee, recording eight strikeouts and surrendering just two baserunners (two walks) across 5 ⅓ innings; he was relieved in the sixth inning after throwing 85 pitches. Aaron Ashby took over for Milwaukee in the bottom of the sixth and would pitch through the eighth inning; Washington got its first hit of the game with one out in the seventh. Easton McGee finished off the pitching domination for the Brewers with a scoreless ninth inning. In what was a 6-1 victory for the Brewers, they gave up just two hits. As for Milwaukee’s work with the bats, catcher William Contreras was the star of the show, going 4 for 5 and driving in three runs. Elsewhere, infielders David Hamilton and Tyler Black had two-hit performances. This win came three weeks after the Brewers were swept at home by the Nationals in a three-game series. Should the defending, back-to-back World Series champions be sitting on the panic button? Probably not. With that said, the Los Angeles Dodgers have now lost three consecutive games following their 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals; their previous two losses were at home to the Marlins. As for Friday, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman got the action going with a two-run homer off Dodgers’ starter Emmet Sheehan in the bottom of the first, which came after Sheehan balked in a run, and first baseman Alec Burleson turned on a slider for a solo homer in the bottom of the third. The Dodgers were within striking distance for the majority of the night, trailing by two runs in the seventh, but a two-run triple from Jordan Walker — who went 4 for 4 on the night — and an RBI groundout from Nathan Church in the bottom half of the seventh put the Cardinals up 7-2, which would be the final score. St. Louis southpaw Matthew Liberatore pitched through 5 ⅔ innings, with the Cardinals’ bullpen pitching 3.1 scoreless innings thereafter. The win moved the Cardinals to a plausible 19-13 on the season, good for being one game out of first place in the NL Central.