ATLANTA -- Drake Baldwin is hitting like the MVP candidate he was before he was injured and Austin Riley is showing the power that earned him MVP consideration just a few years ago.
And, oh by the way, Ronald Acuña Jr. is expected to return to Atlanta’s lineup this week.
There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the Braves’ offense, which continued to roll during an 8-5 win over the Rangers on Sunday afternoon at Truist Park. Baldwin highlighted his first career five-hit game with a pair of homers. Riley also enjoyed a multihomer game.
“Even through our worst struggles, I always had hope, because when I looked into the crystal ball and I looked down the road, I knew we were going to get some guys back,” manager Walt Weiss said. “The guys that were struggling, that wasn't going to continue, because their track record said so.”
Baldwin became the first Braves player to homer twice in a five-hit game since Ozzie Albies did it in a 20-2 win over the Mets on June 30, 2021. The only other Atlanta players to do this in the 21st century were Andruw Jones (2006) and Gary Sheffield (2003).
“I was proud of myself not really taking an at-bat off and having a plan,” said Baldwin, who logged the first five-hit game by a Braves catcher since Johnny Estrada (5-for-5 against the Brewers on May 15, 2004). “Obviously, the results showed up today.”
When the Braves went into the All-Star break having lost 19 of their past 29 games, it was easy to pinpoint Riley as one of the keys to their turnaround. The two-time All-Star hit .207 with nine homers and a .618 OPS over 95 games before the break. But he has gone 6-for-12 (.500) with three homers during the first three games of the second half.
Riley’s home run in Friday’s 15-1 win came when Kyle Higashioka was pitching. But there wasn’t anything fluky about the home run Riley hit against Nathan Eovaldi on Sunday. He stayed back on an 0-2 curveball in the second inning and drilled it a Statcast-projected 416 feet into the second deck in left field. He lined a 95.1 mph fastball over the center-field wall in the fourth. The exit velocity was 109.1 mph.
“That's a great sight to see Riley swinging a bat like that,” Weiss said. “That ball to center was smoked. He's been taking better swings lately. He's hit the ball really hard.”
Getting Riley back to where he was in 2023, when he produced a third straight 30-homer season, would be a big boost for an Atlanta offense that scored at least six runs during each of the three games played against Texas this weekend. The Braves scored six or more runs in just five of the final 29 games before the break.
What was missing? Well, it wasn’t a coincidence that this 29-game rough stretch began on June 9, the same day Acuña went on the injured list for a second time with a strained left hamstring. It also didn’t help that Baldwin came back from a month-long stint on the injured list on June 16 and hit .079 (5-for-63) with a .274 OPS over the next 16 games.
Baldwin ranked fourth among National League players with the 155 wRC+ he produced before straining his right oblique muscle on May 18. He seemed to regain his timing just before the break and he is now hitting like he did during the 2026 season’s first six weeks. He went 10-for-14 (.714) with three homers and eight RBIs in this three-game series.
“Baldwin is back to form,” Weiss said “I think it's official now, after his short little struggle there after coming back. He was on an MVP-type trajectory before he got hurt, and he's looking like that again.”
While Baldwin served as the National League’s starting catcher during this past week’s All-Star Game, Riley simply took time to unwind and play with his kids at the family residence in Mississippi. There was no need to continue taking swings and analyzing mechanics. Simply cleansing the mind might have been exactly what he needed.
“The first half beat me up pretty good,” Riley said. “Just needed to clear my head.”