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.
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.
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, this century were Andruw Jones (2006) and Gary Sheffield (2003).
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 with three homers during the first three games of the second half.
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.
