Last Night in Baseball: The Braves roar and a Barry Bonds record

There’s always baseball – almost too much baseball for one person to follow. 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 scored five runs off 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 score at 6 in the top of the eighth inning. After a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth, outfielder Michael Harris II homered for the Braves and put the Rockies out of their misery with a two-run homer to right field, which put Atlanta up for good, 8-6. Harris’ homer capped eight unanswered runs for the Braves, who improved to 23-10 with the comeback victory and own the best record in the sport. They are the only team in the NL East with a winning record. On the season, Harris 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, in his second season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, finished Friday’s 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, these 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 the MLB with a .404 batting average and is tied at eight for ninth place with 38 hits. He also drove in 21 runs and recorded just 11 strikeouts. Oh, and Ted Lasso was at the game to see Vargas. Certainly, his Diamondbacks lost 6-5. It was a team effort for the Cleveland Guardians to earn a road victory against the Athletics. To start, 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 homer 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 — tied the score at two apiece with a two-run double in the top of the second. Three innings later, Guardians designated hitter Rhys Hoskins tied the score at 4 with a two-run double and then hit a solo home run as part of a three-run seventh inning for Cleveland. The Athletics, however, put the Guardians on the brink of disaster in the bottom of the seventh. 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 lofted a ball toward the center field wall, but four-time Gold Glover Steven Kwan made a jumper to get Cleveland out of the inning. The Guardians continued to win, 8-5. On the season, DeLauter, who made his MLB debut for Cleveland in the 2025 Wild Card Series and was their first-round pick in 2022, leads the Guardians with 20 RBIs, while owning a .524 slugging percentage. The dramatic victory in Sacramento puts the Guardians in first place in the AL Central but with a record of just 17-16. 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 sports history since walks were officially recorded (1910 in the Netherlands and 1913 in the Netherlands). AL) and surpasses Ted Williams, according to MLB.com. Roy Cullenbine holds the record with 22 consecutive games with a walk, achieving the feat in 1947. While he is hitting just .236 and has 26 hits against 46 strikeouts, Kurtz has a .417 on-base percentage in his first 31 games this year. His 34 walks lead the MLB. Do you like circuits? Us too, and Friday evening, there were plenty of them! In fact, three players in the sport have hit two home runs, one of them being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft: Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Henry Davis, who entered Friday with no home runs this season and just 17 in his career. While behind the plate for Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller’s gem (he gave up just one run and four baserunners in 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 off the left field wall for a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth in what was a 9-1 victory for Pittsburgh over the Cincinnati Reds, who entered the series in first place in the Netherlands. Central. For the Toronto Blue Jays, rookie third baseman Kazuma Okamoto starred in a 7-3 road victory over the Minnesota Twins. His first home run came in the top of the fourth, when he threw a pitch over the left field wall. Okamoto reached the batter’s box again in the fifth and homered again, hitting 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 boost following 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 score at 6 with a two-run shot to center. However, his exploits ended in a 7-6 defeat 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 against San Diego Padres right-hander German Marquez, corking a knuckle curve over the right-center field wall. It was a three-run shot that capped a six-run inning for Chicago in an eventual 8-2 victory. 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 scored a run in the eighth. Granted, Murakami has 27 hits against 46 strikeouts and is hitting just .239. At the same time, he owns an on-base percentage of .383 and a slugging percentage of .584, which ranks him eighth in the sport. Additionally, he ranks in the 100th percentile in 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 over the strike zone from San Francisco Giants left-hander Robbie Ray, sending it 432 feet to left field at 112.9 mph right 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 home run was his ninth of the season; he hit 45 home runs last season. The Rays are off to an impressive start, sitting in second place in the AL East with a 19-12 record. Add this one to the collection. New Miami Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis threw out the first pitch of Friday night’s Miami Marlins game against the Philadelphia Phillies and the field was high and wide. Not quite 50 Cent bad. It’s still difficult to watch. Willis signed a three-year, $67.5 million contract with the Dolphins to be their starting quarterback in March after spending the previous two seasons with the Green Bay Packers (2024-25), serving primarily as a backup quarterback to Jordan Love, who was preceded by two seasons with the Tennessee Titans (2022-23). As for the baseball game that happened, Miami lost the NL East game 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 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 — launched a go-ahead solo to center field, keeping New York up against the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3. It was Mauricio’s first home run of the season. In the previous inning, New York scored three runs to tie the scoreboard at 3 before the shortstop put the Mets ahead in the seventh. Before 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 go a no-hitter, but they did manage one in the seventh inning on the road against the Nationals. Jacob Misiorowski got the nod for Milwaukee, recording eight strikeouts and allowing just two baserunners (two walks) in 5 ⅓ innings; he was relieved in the sixth inning after throwing 85 pitches. Aaron Ashby replaced Milwaukee in the bottom of the sixth and pitched the eighth inning; Washington got its first hit of the game with one out in the seventh. Easton McGee ended the Brewers pitching dominance with a scoreless ninth inning. In what was a 6-1 win for the Brewers, they only allowed two hits. As for Milwaukee’s work with the bats, catcher William Contreras was the star of the show, going 4-for-5 from three-point range. Elsewhere, infielders David Hamilton and Tyler Black had two hits. This victory came three weeks after the Brewers were swept at home by the Nationals in a three-game series. Should the back-to-back defending World Series champions sit on the panic button? Probably not. That said, the Los Angeles Dodgers have now lost three straight games following their 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals; their previous two losses were at home against the Marlins. As for Friday, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman got the action started with a two-run homer off Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan in the bottom of the first, after Sheehan fumbled on a run, and first baseman Alec Burleson lit a slider for a solo homer in the bottom of the third. The Dodgers were within striking distance for most of the night, trailing by two runs in the seventh, but a two-run triple by Jordan Walker – who went 4 for 4 on the night – and an RBI groundout by Nathan Church in the bottom half bottom of the seventh gave the Cardinals a 7-2 lead, which would be the final score. St. Louis left-hander Matthew Liberatore pitched 5 ⅔ innings, with the Cardinals bullpen pitching 3.1 scoreless innings afterward. The win moved the Cardinals to a plausible 19-13 record on the season, good for being one game out of first place in the NL Central.