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The train just won’t stop rolling, folks. The Atlanta Braves went into this series with the Cincinnati Reds following an emphatic bounce-back series win against the Boston Red Sox and looking to ensure that this road trip would be a winning one as well. It was especially encouraging to see Ronald Acuña Jr. deliver a big hit for the first time in what felt like ages during that final game in Boston and I’d imagine that we were all hoping that this would keep on going as the team switched venues from Fenway Park to the Great American Ball Park.

As it turned out, to say that Acuña kept it going would be an understatement. It is legitimately not hyperbolic to say that Acuña looked like an MVP-caliber hitter again over the course of these three games in Cincinnati. Now granted, Acuña (and the Braves as a whole during this current era) have usually had a good time swinging the bat in this ballpark but what happened over the course of this weekend was something akin to watching a supernova go off right in front of your eyes. Let’s get into this series to see exactly how things turned out on what ended up being a typically loud series on the Buckeye side of the Ohio River.

Friday, May 29

Braves 8, Reds 3

Ronald Acuña Jr. picked up exactly where he left off in Boston as he crushed a leadoff dinger to get the Braves on the board first. In fact, Reds outfielder bake Dunn was the only reason why it didn’t get worse for starting pitcher Chris Paddack and the Reds in the first inning as Dunn robbed Michael Harris II of a dinger and then unleashed a laser to get Matt Olson out at second base after Olson tried to leg out a double.

With that being said, that didn’t stop the Braves from continuing their early onslaught once the second inning rolled around. Atlanta loaded the bases with nobody out to get the top of the second started and they eventually ended up cashing in three runs from it in order to take a 4-0 lead. That was all the damage they’d end up doing to Paddack and in fact, this was a tight game after five innings after the Reds launched two solo homers off of Grant Holmes in the fourth inning and then added a third run to Holmes’ line after Didier Fuentes gave up an RBI single to Sal Stewart to make it just a one-run lead for the Braves.

Fortunately, Yunior Marte suffered the same fate as Chris Paddack in that they both gave up four runs. Marte surrendered all four of those runs in one inning, though, as the first four Braves who came to the plate in the sixth all reached safely. Michael Harris II, Jorge Mateo (who has been lowkey heating up lately) and Mike Yastrzemski all delivered the big RBI shots that resulted in the Braves taking a five-run, 8-3 lead. Didier Fuentes sat down the side in order in the sixth inning and Atlanta’s bullpen clamped down from that point forward in order to make sure that 8-3 was how it ended.

Saturday, May 30

Braves 5, Reds 2

The long ball played a major factor in Atlanta’s success in picking up yet another series, as the Braves clubbed four homers in this one. Half of those came off of the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr., who appears to be on the start of a real heater. The Braves actually trailed after two innings thanks to JJ Bleday taking advantage of a hanging curveball from Martín Pérez for a two-run homer but after that, the homers were exclusively reserved for the Braves.

Acuña’s first dinger of the game came in the third inning as it tied the game up at two runs apiece. Two innings later, Jorge Mateo hit his third dinger of the season to put the Braves in front (now mind you, Mateo hit one (1) homer in 43 games last season) and then Acuña followed that up by reaching third base without swinging the bat following a walk and two stolen bases. He didn’t score but it’s also another sign that Acuña may be rounding into MVP form — plus it was pretty cool to see so I had to mention it.

Anyways, Matt Olson sent one out for a solo shot in the seventh inning to give the Braves some breathing room and then Acuña put the icing on the cake with a bomb in ninth inning to make it a three-run deficit. Thanks to Martín Pérez throwing another solid five innings and Atlanta’s high-leverage bullpen quartet of Tyler Kinley, Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias combining for four scoreless innings with just one baserunner allowed between the four of them, the Braves ended up cruising to their 40th victory of the season. Folks, that’s 40 victories before June — PHEW!

Sunday, May 31

Reds 6, Braves 4

The good news to report from this one is that Ronald Acuña Jr. continued to absolutely light it up at the plate. Acuña reached base four times in this one and in fact, the very first pitch he saw from Nick Lodolo during this game ended up landing in the right field seats for his fifth home run in four games. As far as the plate production goes, the Reds will surely not miss seeing Acuña for the rest of this season!

The bad news is that the Braves couldn’t really string together enough offense to deliver a big inning that could’ve potentially turned the tide in this one. The Reds responded with an RBI double from (none other than) JJ Bleday in the first inning to tie it up and then Bleday hit liner out to right for another double that gave the Reds the lead in the third inning. As a matter of fact, the Reds basically just wore out Acuña out there in right field as Will Benson’s double in the fourth inning ended up turning into another run scored for the Reds as Acuña had a devil of a time trying to retrieve the ball. Spencer Steer went first-to-home as a result and the Braves were in a 3-1 hole.

That was the second of five straight innings where the Reds added exactly one run to their tally. Despite another Jorge Mateo home run in the fifth inning and a sacrifice fly from Austin Riley in the sixth inning, the Braves were unable to keep pace with Cincinnati and found themselves dealing with a three-run deficit once the ninth inning rolled around. Atlanta was able to get a rally going in the final frame which saw Acuña drive in another run to make it 6-4 while also getting themselves into a bases-loaded situation with two outs. Having Matt Olson at the plate was about as good as what the Braves could ask for but unfortunately, Olson grounded out to third and the Braves ended up having to settle for a series win instead of a sweep.

So, that’s another series win, another successful road trip and another wildly successful month of baseball for the 2026 Atlanta Braves. They’ve now won or split 15 of 17 series that they’ve played so far and they’re the first team to win 40 games this season. They’ll be the only team with at least 40 wins for at least a few days since the only other team that’s knocking on the door of 40 wins is none other than the Dodgers, who have 37 wins. The Rays and Yankees aren’t too far behind with 36 and 35 wins and then you have the Brewers with 35 wins as well and the Guardians are continuing to practice witchcraft over there with 34 wins of their own.

No matter how you slice it, the Braves are red-hot and they aren’t showing too many signs of stopping. For reference’s sake, the Nationals have gone 20-13 over their past 33 and they’re still firmly in the rear view mirror. The Phillies are starting to recover from their rough start and yet they’re right there wit the Nationals in terms of distance behind the Braves. No current divisional leader has a bigger cushion at the top of their division right now than the Braves do and it’s tough to imagine that changing any time soon.

It also sure helps that Ronald Acuña Jr. is showing some loud signs that he’s getting right again. The Braves have been successful with Acuña kind of treading water (for his standards) and now it’s fun to imagine what this team can do with Acuña firing on all cylinders like he’s capable of. It was clear that the offense needed some sort of a spark after Drake Baldwin went down with an oblique injury and ever since the series finale in Boston and throughout this series in Cincinnati, Acuña has provided that spark for this team and it’s been truly exciting to witness.

Now, the Braves will get a day off on Monday before kicking off the June slate with a six-game homestand against the Blue Jays and Pirates. With the way this team is continuing to play, they can reasonably believe that they’ve got a very good shot of winning any and every series they play in, which is some rarefied air to be in this deep into any given regular season. Plain and simple, this is a very fun baseball team to watch right now and hopefully it’ll continue for a good, long while — especially if Acuña can keep on lighting it up as the Braves return home.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to rebound and win the series Sunday night when Matthew Liberatore takes the mound for another national broadcast. Jordan Wicks will get the start for the Chicago Cubs. First pitch is set for 6:20pm central time as the game will be watchable on NBC/Peacock.

Jesús Sánchez wasn’t “trying to play catch” — but a fan apparently was.

The Blue Jays outfielder was injured in bizarre fashion on Sunday, when he was hit in the hand by a ball thrown from the stands during a game against the Orioles.

During the sixth inning, Sánchez was talking with a fan in the outfield when he put his glove up, which seemingly led the fan to believe the MLB veteran wanted a ball thrown his way.

But the 28-year-old had put his glove down when the ball came flying his way, and he was left in pain when the ball hit him.

Sánchez was attended to by medical staff and ultimately left the field holding his hand.

He shared after the game through an interpreter that the situation with the fan was a “misunderstanding.”

“I wasn’t trying to play catch right there with them,” Sánchez told reporters.

“I just looked at them and they thought maybe that I wanted them to throw the ball back to me.”

The Blue Jays, who lost the game 9-5, said Sánchez had suffered a right wrist contusion, but that X-rays for a fracture had come back negative.

The Orioles also released a statement to reporters, which said that the fan had been identified and removed from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Sánchez is slashing a .287/.324/.461 line this season with 28 RBIs — and the Blue Jays will hope he doesn’t miss much time.

The Athletics are playing in a minor league ballpark again this year as they wait for their new home to be built in Las Vegas. On Sunday, in the top of the third inning, they pitched like a minor league team as well.

The New York Yankees teed off on A's starter Jacob Lopez and relievers Michael Kelly and Jack Perkins for 13 runs in the top of the third inning.

The Yankees sent 18 players to the plate at Sutter Health Park, pilling up 11 hits and four walks in the biggest inning the team has had since at least 1974, according to the WFAN broadcast. Lopez wore most of it before manager Mark Kotsay turned to Kelly and then to Perkins, who finally put an end to the circus.

Lopez was charged with seven earned runs on five hits. Kelly allowed six runs on six hits and two walks.

Ten runs were scored before anyone made an out. No Yankees team had ever done that.

It was another tough day of Royals baseball. They were promptly swept for the third time in their last four series. They have lost 6 straight and 16 of their last 19. They are one of the worst teams in all of baseball.

A four-run first inning, all with two outs, doomed Michael Wacha and the Royals. Ezequiel Duran tripled to score two, scoring himself on a single y Alejandro Osuna. A Kyle Higashioka double would plate another run to make it 4-0.

Wacha would allow two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Wacha, who’d thrown five straight quality starts, just simply didn’t have it today. His final line was 5 innings, 8 hits, 6 runs, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts. Steven Cruz, Eli Morgan and Mason Black all pitched scoreless innings for the Royals.

On offense, Michael Massey hit a 2-run homer late to make it 6-3. He had a pair of hits, and Bobby singled and hit a bloop double in the ninth to give him a multi-hit day.

I wish I could say more, but there is simply nothing positive going on right now for the Royals. Their road trip continues tomorrow as they open a 3-game set in Cincinnati to take on the Reds. Luinder Avila is the expected starter for what should be a bullpen game. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m. CT.

At least my Kansas Jayhawks might clinch a super-regional berth tonight! 🙂

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Looking back, the most remarkable feat accomplished here Sunday afternoon may have been that across eight combined innings, the Athletics faced the minimum against the Yankees.

That’s because for one inning in between — a 43-minute top of the third — they faced a Yankees parade.

Sparked by a message from Aaron Judge to wake up after a “sleepy” first two innings, the Yankees began the third by having their first 12 batters reach base safely and scoring 10 runs before they made the first out. And their stupefying rally did not stop there.

By the time the marathon inning was over, the Yankees had sent 18 men to the plate, with 15 of them reaching and 13 of them scoring — one shy of a franchise record that has stood since 1920. They racked up 11 hits — incredibly, none of them leaving the park — four walks and four steals, seeing 75 pitches from three pitchers. Anthony Volpe, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger each had two hits in the inning, with Rice driving in four runs on a double and triple.

In the process, the Yankees turned a three-run deficit into a 10-run lead, sucking the life out of the A’s pitching staff one painstaking at-bat at a time on the way to a 13-8 win.

“We were sitting here kind of flat, but when we have energy and we press on the gas against all these teams, we’re the best team in baseball,” Judge said. “Just wanted guys to remember that.

“A couple choice words there, just get it going. The boys responded.”

Amazingly, in the eight innings outside of the ridiculous third, the Yankees only had a single base runner: a leadoff walk in the sixth inning that was erased by a double play. In other words, the A’s were one inning short of a combined no-hitter.

“Today was one of those crazy games that I don’t know what it was, but it was a win,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Will Warren, who had to jog to the bullpen during the second pitching change of the third inning to warm up because it had been so long since he last threw a pitch, did not allow the A’s (28-31) to return serve. The right-hander took the gaudy run support and cruised across six innings, allowing only three unearned runs, as the Yankees (36-23) wrapped up a 5-1 road trip in style.

“It’s very easy in a day game to, ‘Oh let’s go through the motions,’ but that’s how you get your ass beat,” Warren said. “I’m glad we woke up and turned it around on them.”

The 12 straight Yankees to reach base to start the third inning matched a franchise record from 1949. Phil Rizzuto led off that rally with a walk before the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra piled on.

On Sunday, it was Volpe who got it going with a bloop single after the Yankees had not even hit the ball out of the infield through the first two innings against A’s lefty Jacob Lopez and trailed 3-0.

Former A’s utilityman Max Schuemann and Austin Wells followed with walks to load the bases for Paul Goldschmidt, who roped an RBI single to make it a 3-1 game.

Rice came up next and smoked a two-run double down the line to tie the game before Judge blooped a single into center field for the 4-3 lead, and the Yankees were off and running. They did not make an out until Goldschmidt, batting for the second time in the frame, was called out looking at a pitch out of the zone, at which point they led 10-3.

“It was crazy,” said Volpe, who was on deck to hit for the third time when the inning finally ended. “I felt like I would run the bases and then I’d get up and have to put my stuff back on [to hit].”

They leaned on station-to-station action to keep extending the lead instead of waiting for the big swing to clean up the traffic with a home run. The long ball never came for the team that leads the majors in homers, but they found a different way to attack against Lopez and righty reliever Michael Kelly.

“We got guys up and down this lineup that can hit homers, but it’s guys taking walks, guys just putting the ball in play and seeing what happens,” Judge said. “I feel like [for] a couple years, we haven’t had that ability to do something like that. But now we got the capability with the type of lineup we have, there’s a lot of grit in this team.

“That inning was fun.”

The A’s made things semi-interesting in the seventh inning when Tim Hill got some work in and gave up four runs on a pair of homers, but eventually the Yankees escaped with the win.

“I don’t think the prettiest game on either side necessarily,” Boone said, “but we were able to make a really outstanding inning stand up.

With how this month of May went for the Nats, it was only fitting that they finished it off by taking a series against a team above .500. That is what this team has been doing all month, and it is why they had a 16-12 record in May. It is even more fitting that the battery of Zack Littell and Keibert Ruiz led them to this win.

Both Ruiz and Littell had tough starts to the season, but really turned things around in May. Ruiz hit .379 with a 1.107 OPS on the month, while playing great defense. Meanwhile, Littell posted a 2.35 ERA in 30.2 innings, after having an ERA over 8 in April. For Ruiz, he needed to find his confidence and Littell just needed to get back up to speed after signing late in the offseason.

It also appears that the two have developed a mutual respect for each other. After the game, Ruiz credited Littell for “attacking hitters and getting quick outs”. Littell seemed very impressed with Ruiz, especially on the defensive side of the ball. He admitted that prior to playing here, he knew that Ruiz was not exactly known as a defensive minded catcher. After working with him though, Littell said that Ruiz has been “Unbelievable” and says that he “loves working with him”. 

Littell also credited Ruiz’s work ethic, which has been a common theme this year. In Spencer Nusbaum’s great piece about Ruiz, it talked about how the work ethic has always been there for him. The difference this year is that Ruiz is working smarter as well. 

While the Nats catcher went 2 for 3 today, his biggest contributions were on the defensive end. He gunned down three runners today including two huge strike em out throw em out plays that ended stressful innings. Ruiz got the Nats out of a nervy 7th by gunning down a runner, and did the same to end the game in the 9th.

This version of Keibert Ruiz has absolutely shocked me. He is playing like an elite catcher. Who knows if it will last, but now we can see what Keibert is capable of when he is at the top of his game. Ruiz seems like a really easy guy to root for, and he has taken a lot of flack over the years from people like myself and others. It is just great to see him succeeding and playing to his potential.

I feel like we have been saying this after each of his last few outings, but Zack Littell may have had the best outing of his season yet again, at least for the first six innings. The veteran absolutely cruised through the Padres lineup for 6 frames. He was getting quick outs at will, while also getting swing and miss when he needed it. Littell credited his increased whiff and chase numbers to staying in the zone more. When he gets ahead of hitters by pounding the zone, he is able to force them to chase later in counts. This start finished off a fantastic month for the righty.

The Nats offense may not have been at their electric best today, but they still got the job done, thanks largely to a couple laser beam home runs. Luis Garcia Jr. hit the first one, swinging away on a 3-0 count. He hit a 111 mph line drive that just kept going out to right field.

In the next inning, James Wood found a way to one up Garcia. He hit a very similar line drive home run, just slightly harder and slightly further. Wood’s homer was 113.8 MPH off the bat and traveled 417 feet. It was an absolute missile that got out of Nats Park in the blink of an eye.

After the Wood homer, the Nats had a seemingly comfortable 3-0 lead with Littell rolling. However, things got dicey in the 7th when Littell allowed three straight base runners. Blake Butera turned to his fire man Orlando Ribalta to get out of the jam. He started things out by allowing a sac fly and then walking a batter. However, after a long battle with Miguel Andujar, he got the strikeout and Keibert Ruiz gunned down Sung-Mun Song at second.

The Nats then added a key insurance run in the bottom of the frame. This run came thanks to three unlikely heroes. Jose Tena, Jorbit Vivas and Andres Chaparro have not exactly been crushing the ball lately, but they sparked this mini rally. Tena and Vivas got on base to start the inning. Then with two outs, Chaparro hit a double down the line to bring in a key insurance run. Chaparro has not played a ton, but he has gotten two clutch knocks.

The Nationals outstanding month of May was capped off by yet another runner gunned down by Ruiz. Clayton Beeter looked a little shaky, but he was able to get through the inning without much trouble, in part due to his catcher. The Nats won again and improved to 31-29.

If you told me that this team would be two games over .500 heading into June, I am not sure I would have believed you, yet here we are. This team is playing inspired baseball under Blake Butera, and only seem to be improving. Things are looking up in DC for the first time in a while.

Before Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos spoke with BravesVision Play-by-Play commentator Brandon Gaudin in something of a “state of the front office”-type interview. With that being said, the biggest question of the session had to do with the status of a couple of injured players. Drake Baldwin is currently on the IL with an oblique strain and there’s been little news when it comes to hammering down a potential return date for Atlanta’s rising star of a catcher.

AA did provide a little bit of an update but it’s still something that’s more of an estimate rather than something concrete to look forward to. With a Grade 1 oblique strain, the time frame is usually around 3-4 weeks and AA mentioned that when it comes to that sort of thing, he and the rest of the front office like to use the latter estimate instead of the former. If it’s four weeks then that would mean that mid-June would seem like the time to hopefully start expecting an imminent return for Baldwin.

AA also mentioned that he isn’t anticipating that Baldwin’s return would be preceded by a rehab stint. He explained that since Sean Murphy and Ha-Seong Kim didn’t have a spring training, they needed the rehab stint when compared to Baldwin’s situation. In the case of Baldwin, since he’s been getting plenty of regular season reps (and swinging the bat very well, to be frank) that would mean that they’d try to just throw him back in the action once it’s clear that he’s healthy.

Again, this is all pretty nebulous and when you once again consider that this is an oblique injury that we’re talking about, I’d imagine that the Braves are going to take it very easy when it comes to bringing Drake Baldwin back into the fold. They also have the benefit of having the best record in baseball with a comfortable lead in the division, so it’s not like they have to rush Baldwin back into the fold. It also helps that Ronald Acuña Jr. appears primed to pick up the baton that Baldwin unfortunately had to drop due to his injury.

All of this is to say that Baldwin is likely still at least a couple of weeks away from starting to really ramp up for a return. As I mentioned above, it’s good that the Braves don’t have to rush him but it’s also fun to imagine what this lineup could look like with everybody firing on all cylinders. We still have yet to see this lineup in it’s fully healthy form and it’s very exciting to think about what this offense could do with its full compliment of players.

For now, it’s time to remain patient when it comes to Drake Baldwin coming back in the near future. There are plenty of reasons to be patient and hopefully Baldwin will go back to raking once he does eventually make his return from a notoriously tricky injury to deal with. We’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, AA did provide some tangible good news when it comes to their injured pitching. He told Gaudin that Hurston Waldrep is apparently going to begin a rehab stint on Monday, so that’s obviously good news. Waldrep is clearly on the road to recovery and apparently he’s been throwing bullpen sessions where he’s been hitting 96-99 mph on the radar gun. That’s pretty exciting to hear and hopefully this means that Waldrep will be arriving to join a Braves pitching staff that has already been doing a great job of holding down the fort without the likes of Waldrep or Spencer Schwellenbach as well.