{"id":813171,"date":"2026-07-20T00:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/813171\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T00:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:38:11","slug":"refreshed-atlanta-braves-open-second-half-with-series-win-behind-drake-baldwin-austin-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/813171\/","title":{"rendered":"Refreshed Atlanta Braves open second half with series win behind Drake Baldwin, Austin Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 After returning from an oblique injury that kept him sidelined for nearly a month, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin<\/a> said he found himself desperate for a hit. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, in the finale of the Braves\u2019 three-game home series against the Texas Rangers<\/a>, Baldwin had no problems making contact. The catcher was a career-best 5 for 5 at the plate and homered twice in Atlanta\u2019s 8-5 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaldwin, he\u2019s back. He\u2019s back to form. I think it\u2019s official now,\u201d Braves manager Walt Weiss said after the game. \u201dHe was on an MVP-type trajectory before he got hurt, and he\u2019s looking like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Braves\u2019 first games back from the All-Star break, the club clinched its 21st series \u2014 tying its total from the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Baldwin spent his days off as the National League\u2019s starting catcher in his first All-Star game. Third baseman Austin Riley<\/a>\u2019s break looked a little different, but it proved just as efficient in being the reset he needed to get back on track. <\/p>\n

\u201cI actually didn\u2019t do anything over the break. Just more of a mental break. … Went home, hung out with my family, chased my boys around,\u201d Riley said after his first two-homer outing since April 17. \u201cAfter a couple of days off, coming back and just kind of a little recharged, it\u2019s nice to see that we\u2019re kind of firing on all cylinders with the offense there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Riley homered twice and had four RBIs, including a clutch two-run single in the seventh inning to put the Braves up 6-3. Weiss said it\u2019s hard not to root for a player, teammate and person like Riley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a great sight to see Riley swinging the bat like that,\u201d Weiss said. \u201dHe\u2019s been taking better swings lately, and he\u2019s hit the ball really hard. … He\u2019s shown some really good signs, and that\u2019ll be huge for us.\u201d <\/p>\n

After a difficult June, Weiss hopes a series victory against the AL West-leading Rangers is enough for his team to turn the page. The Braves have a three-game lead over second-place Philadelphia in the NL East. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur team had a rough June, but we\u2019ve come out the other side still in first place, and we\u2019re playing better now,\u201d the first-year Braves manager said. \u201cThose things are deposits in the bank as far as your mental toughness and being battle-tested \u2014 as long as you come out the other side, and I think we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n

Maura Carey, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 After returning from an oblique injury that kept him sidelined for nearly a month, Braves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-813171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}