ATLANTA -- Growing up in suburban Boston as the grandson of Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, Mike Yastrzemski adopted the Braves as his favorite National League team. His fandom was so strong that he went through a portion of his childhood sleeping with a baseball glove that Bobby Cox gave him when Atlanta was playing at Fenway Park.
So, it was only fitting that he would star in what was the first game in which he competed for one of his childhood teams against the other.
“That was really cool,” Yastrzemski said. “But I probably shouldn’t have been in that moment.”
Yastrzemski might have a hard time forgetting that he fouled two sacrifice bunt attempts when he came to the plate with the automatic runner on second base to begin the bottom of the 10th inning on Friday night at Truist Park. But the lasting memory for Braves fans will be the game-ending double he drilled to conclude that at-bat and lift Atlanta to a 3-2 win over the Red Sox.
“I went up to him before the inning started and said, ‘Man, you went to [Vanderbilt], you’ve got to be able to bunt, that’s all you guys do,’” Braves manager Walt Weiss said.
In Yastrzemski’s defense, 13 years have passed since he played collegiately for the Commodores. He contributed two sacrifice bunts for the Giants last year. So, the art of moving the runner over isn’t foreign to the 35-year-old veteran.
But after getting ahead of Red Sox lefty Tyler Samaniego with a 1-0 count, he bunted the next two pitches foul.
“It was a really good form,” Weiss said. “They just went foul.”
Having Yastrzemski sacrifice made sense, especially with a left-hander on the mound. He’s totaled just 18 at-bats against southpaws this year and he entered Friday with a .422 OPS against them over 123 plate appearances dating back to the start of 2025.
“Maybe squaring around helped me see the ball a little better,” Yastrzemski said. “It was one of those moments where walking back to the plate after fouling off a second pitch, when it’s like, ‘It's time to buckle up, and you’ve got to do something now.’ I think the competitive nature just kicked in.”
A euphoric sense kicked in for the Braves when Yastrzemski’s game-winner landed in left-center field, allowing Ha-Seong Kim to score from second in uncontested fashion.
“I’m very happy the way it turned out,” Yastrzemski said. “It was thrilling to do it here at home.”
While Yastrzemski has struggled against lefties, Drake Baldwin has continued to show he can handle them. The reigning National League Rookie of the Year hit a solo shot in the first inning against Red Sox starter Connelly Early. It was his 12th homer of the season and sixth against a left-handed pitcher. The Braves’ record for most left vs. left homers in a season over the last 50 years is 11, set by David Justice in 1993 and matched by Fred McGriff in 1996.
Michael Harris II, the 2022 NL Rookie of the Year, also tallied a left vs. left homer against Early in the fourth. His eighth homer of the season helped support 2022 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Spencer Strider, who allowed just one run over 5 1/3 innings, despite allowing the leadoff batter to reach in five of the six innings he pitched.
This was another night when a lot went right for the Braves, who own MLB’s best record (31-14). Tyler Kinley allowed Marcelo Mayer’s game-tying homer in the seventh and has now surrendered a home run to four of the past 22 batters he’s faced.
But once Yastrzemski won his own left vs. left battle to end the game, nobody was thinking about Kinley’s recent woes or a couple of botched bunt attempts.
Yastrzemski can now just look forward with the confidence this week has created. He entered the homestand hitting .200 with a .516 OPS. He has since gone 4-for-7 with three of those hits delivering what proved to be the game-winning RBI, raising his average to .221 and his OPS to .597.
“It’s always nice when you reap the rewards of your work,” Weiss said. “He's a pro. He's a team-first guy and we love when the game rewards those guys.”