Braden Montgomery showed up for his big league debut and immediately became part of the fun.
The Chicago White Sox have been one of baseball's most pleasant surprises this season. With a 38-32 record, they're atop the AL Central. That's after losing 102 games last year and a record 121 in 2024. So the vibes were already good when Montgomery played his first major league game Tuesday night.
Then he sent a drive to left in the bottom of the 10th for a two-run homer to win the game, 6-5 over the Atlanta Braves. Montgomery became the fifth player to hit a walk-off homer in his debut, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He joined Billy Parker, Josh Bard, Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Pérez.
Montgomery is Chicago's No. 2-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The outfielder was a first-round draft pick by Boston in 2024, then he was part of the trade that sent Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox before last season.
The White Sox finished the week by taking two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers. That was after beating Atlanta twice in a row.
Performance of the week
There are two obvious candidates this week. Yoshinobu Yamamoto retired the first 23 batters he faced Saturday and took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before allowing a leadoff homer in the Dodgers' 7-1 win over the White Sox.
But even that wasn't as impressive as Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski's one-hitter against Philadelphia on Friday night. He struck out 15 in a 6-0 win and threw a pitch at 104.5 mph, the fastest by a starter since tracking began.
Trivia time
Misiorowski became the fifth pitcher since 1903 to strike out at least 15 with no walks while throwing either a no-hitter or a one-hitter. Who were the others?
Comeback of the week
The San Francisco Giants were eight runs behind in the eighth Wednesday against Washington when they scored five runs in each of the final two innings to win 11-10. San Francisco's win probability was 0.2% in the eighth according to Baseball Savant.
Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers led off the bottom of the eighth with home runs, and after a pair of walks, Daniel Susac doubled home a run. Two more came home on a groundout and a wild pitch.
After the Nats extended the lead to 10-6, Luis Arraez and Chapman led off the bottom of the ninth with consecutive doubles to pull the Giants within three. After a walk and a single loaded the bases, Bryce Eldridge won it with a grand slam.
Teams trailing by at least eight runs in the eighth inning or later had lost 4,291 consecutive games, according to Sportradar. The last team to win after facing such a deficit was Cleveland against Tampa Bay in 2009.
Trivia answer
Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs struck out 20 in a one-hitter on May 6, 1998, against Houston.
Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox struck out 17 in a one-hitter on Sept. 10, 1999, against the New York Yankees.
Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals struck out 17 in a no-hitter on Oct. 3, 2015, against the New York Mets.
Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 15 in a no-hitter on June 18, 2014, against Colorado.
Only Misiorowski faced the minimum 27 batters.
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