ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 After returning from an oblique injury that kept him sidelined for nearly a month, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin said he found himself desperate for a hit.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, in the finale of the Braves’ three-game home series against the Texas Rangers, Baldwin had no problems making contact. The catcher was a career-best 5 for 5 at the plate and homered twice in Atlanta’s 8-5 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaldwin, he\u2019s back. He\u2019s back to form. I think it\u2019s official now,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said after the game. “He was on an MVP-type trajectory before he got hurt, and he\u2019s looking like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Braves’ 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’s starting catcher in his first All-Star game. Third baseman Austin Riley’s 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,” 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’s 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,” Weiss said. “He\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’ve come out the other side still in first place, and we’re playing better now,” 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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 After returning from an oblique injury that kept him sidelined for nearly a month, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin said he found himself desperate for a hit. On Sunday, in the finale of the Braves’ three-game home series against the Texas Rangers, Baldwin had no problems making contact. The catcher was a career-best … Continue reading Refreshed Braves open second half with series win behind Drake Baldwin and Austin Riley<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-22 03:43:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1525923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1525924,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525923\/revisions\/1525924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1525923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1525923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1525923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}