Last Night In Baseball: Braves Avoid Yankees Sweep With Extra-Innings W

The Braves avoided being swept, thanks to a strong arm and a timely bat. A pair of Schwarbombs, a five-hit game and some great defense by a rookie. Sunday’s MLB action provided all that and much more. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: This weekend brought us a matchup between heavyweights, with the Yankees — seven games up for the top AL wild-card — facing off against the Braves, the NL East leaders and holders of the second-best record in the National League. Atlanta lost the first two games of the series to New York, but on Sunday, the Braves avoided a series sweep with a win in extras. This play would be notable regardless of the final score, but with the Braves winning this in extras, it became that much more important. Right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. didn’t throw a runner out here, but that’s the point — simply being Ronald Acuña Jr. kept anyone from even attempting to score. In the next inning, first baseman Matt Olson — playing in his 900th game in a row — put Atlanta up 1-0 with his 34th homer of the season. In the bottom of the eighth, however, New York scored when center fielder Trent Grisham sent a Didier Fuentes fastball 392 feet to right center, tying the game up — that failure to even attempt to score earlier made itself felt here, because neither of the teams scored again before extras. Olson started the 10th inning on second, and center fielder Michael Harris II worked a six-pitch at-bat against reliever Nick Blackburn before connecting on a low-and-inside, 96 mph sinker — he turned it into a ground ball single to right, and the game-winner. Not the greatest weekend overall for the Braves, but Atlanta notched its 71st win and avoided being swept. That’s something, as is winning a game where Cam Schlittler gave up one run over seven innings with 11 strikeouts — this would have been a very excusable one to lose. Jacob Misiorowski… this guy just keeps getting it done. Here, he pitched six innings with nine strikeouts and three runs allowed facing the Twins, against a single walk, and made it to 200 strikeouts before anyone else in 2026. It’s also the second-fastest anyone ever reached 200 Ks, as Braves’ starter Spencer Strider got to 200 in 123 ⅓ innings in 2023, compared to Miz’s 129 ⅓ frames. Misiorowski had help, though. With the game tied 3-3 in the sixth, rookie Luis Lara made an excellent catch at the wall to rob a homer, keeping things even. Lara certainly didn’t seem like he’s just 5-foot-7 on that leap. The game ended up going to extras, still 3-3, and there, Lara made another huge catch — this one didn’t rob a homer, but it was still at the wall and there was a runner on second ready to score if given the opportunity, and he wasn’t given it. In the bottom of the 10th, Brice Turang was the runner on second to start the inning. While catcher William Contreras whiffed for the first out, first baseman Jake Bauers singled in Turang, and the play at the plate, after review, favored Milwaukee. Ballgame. The W put the Brewers a season-high 30 games over .500, the best mark in MLB to go with the top run differential and most wins. This was a rough result for Minnesota, as its position isn’t nearly as strong. The Twins are now 58-61, 1.5 back of a wild-card spot and four games back in the AL Central. That doesn’t seem all that far back in either case, but things would be even closer if Minnesota had managed to pull off this W, with all but one team in front of them in the wild-card race losing on Sunday as well. Sensing a theme? The Phillies lost the first two games of the weekend series against the Blue Jays, which made life difficult for Philadelphia since it now finds itself just a game up on the Padres in the wild-card race without the cushion it once had. Philly was able to salvage things a bit and avoid a sweep on Sunday, though, thanks to Kyle Schwarber hitting his first home run since July 18… and then his second dinger since then, too. The DH now has an MLB-leading 35 homers after a day that also saw him walk three times and drive in four runs. This was only enough to have the game tied and sent to extras, however: there, center fielder Derek Hill — who entered as a pinch-hitter earlier in the game — hit the walk-off single to center to send everyone home. Toronto still won the series, of course, and now sits 3.5 back for an AL wild-card spot, but with eight teams in front of them. On Saturday, the Dodgers finally won their first game of August, snapping a seven-game losing streak. Sunday was a chance to win the series against the Diamondbacks and string together consecutive wins for the first time since July 30, but it was not to be. Starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez went seven innings with nine strikeouts and just two walks and runs allowed against Los Angeles, which was much better than Justin Wrobleski’s third-consecutive rough start: five runs, seven runs and now four (three earned) in just 3 ⅓ innings. That makes 15 earned runs in his last 13 ⅔ frames. The Dodgers’ bullpen held Arizona scoreless the rest of the way, but the damage was done. DH Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer to start things off against Wrobleski, then in the second left fielder Ryan Waldschmidt hit a sac bunt for the eventual game-winner, and catcher Gabriel Moreno doubled in the fourth run of the game. With the dub, Arizona kept pace with the Phillies and remained tied for the two wild-card spots behind the Cubs: the D-backs are 7.5 behind the Dodgers, which is as close as they have been for some time, but still a less likely dream than a wild-card at this stage. The Astros scored two runs in the top of the second to take a 2-0 lead over the Padres, but that was all Houston would manage. Not just for runs, but for hits: the Astros managed a single followed by a two-run homer from newcomer Daulton Varsho, and then didn’t manage another knock for the rest of the game. San Diego, though? San Diego mashed. The Padres responded with not just seven unanswered runs, but each of them coming via the long ball. Center fielder Jackson Merrill drove in the first run of the game for the Friars with a dinger in the bottom of the second… …then right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. crushed his 11th homer of the season, a 421-foot three-run blast to put San Diego up 4-2. Designated hitter Gavin Sheets then added on with a solo shot in the sixth to make it 5-2… …and brand new Padre, Austin Hays, hit his first homer with the team and second of the year on a liner to left in the eighth to extend the lead to 7-2. Hays had entered the game off the bench, after he was released by the White Sox earlier in the week and subsequently signed by the Padres to be a right-handed bat off the bench. He delivered in his first opportunity in the role. Houston is still in good shape — grading on the curve of the AL West, anyway — as the Astros are in first in the division and also the only team above .500 within it. Of course, Houston is just 60-59 and half-a-game up on the Rangers, so it’s not like it has a commanding lead. Its competition includes a Mariners team that has lost four in a row, though, and a Rangers team that has topped out at three games over .500 this season, though. So, there’s that. It’s been a real rough few weeks for the Guardians. Cleveland lost five in a row between July 22 and 26, and has gone just 4-8 since snapping that skid. With the White Sox not exactly thriving at the same time, this was a huge missed opportunity for the Guardians. Despite Chicago posting its own four-game losing streak in this stretch, Cleveland went from a game back to four behind in the span of a few weeks, and is now 58-61. The Guardians went up 2-0 in the first, but the White Sox tied it up with a pair of RBI doubles, one each in the second and third, from first baseman Munetaka Murakami and left fielder Randal Grichuk. Then, DH Colson Montgomery put things out of reach for Cleveland with a three-run shot after Vargas’ double. Third baseman José Ramírez would drive in his second run of the day late to cut the lead to two, but that’s as close as Cleveland would get. Which is bad news for multiple reasons… …one of them being what the Tigers were up to over the weekend while the Guardians were losing the series to the White Sox. Detroit won its own series against the Giants, with a 3-1 win in extra innings. And what helped even get to the point where that could happen? This throw from right fielder Zack McKinstry to keep a run from scoring. Second baseman Hao-Yu Lee drove in the game winning run in extras on a liner to right, leading to what would be a 3-1 win, and it also put the Tigers ahead of the Twins in the AL Central. Detroit is now 23-11 since June 29, tied for the second-best record in MLB in that stretch, and once again “why did Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize get traded at the deadline?” comes to mind. An eighth-inning shot to give the Cardinals the lead over the Rockies, by second baseman J.J. Wetherholt… …and very exciting chaser, courtesy left fielder Evan Perreira, who had entered the game as a defensive replacement at the start of the ninth. St. Louis is now 59-59, 3.5 back of a wild-card and coming up on a series against the Phillies. This was a real big day for Bo Bichette, as the third baseman got on base six times in a dominant 11-1 win over the Pirates. Bichette logged five hits: a single in the top of the first, another single in the top of the third, a double in the top of the fourth, another double in the seventh and finally, a single in the ninth. Bichette hasn’t fully recovered his season line by any means, but he’s up to .263/.307/.378 for the year after thanks to a .317/.347/.463 mark since June 3, a 57-game stretch. That’s possible good news for next season, as the Mets try to move past a 2026 that has them 19.5 back in the NL East and 11 behind in a wild-card race most of the rest of the senior circuit seems to be in.