Braden Montgomery wasted no time making his mark on the major leagues.
The Chicago White Sox have been turning heads all season, sitting at 38-32 and leading the AL Central — a remarkable turnaround for a team that lost 102 games last year and a record 121 in 2024. The good feelings were already flowing when Montgomery stepped onto the field for his first major league game Tuesday night.
Then he made history. In the bottom of the 10th inning, Montgomery launched a two-run homer to left field, giving the White Sox a 6-5 walk-off victory over the Atlanta Braves. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he became just the fifth player ever to hit a walk-off home run in his major league debut, joining Billy Parker, Josh Bard, Miguel Cabrera, and Carlos Pérez.
Montgomery is ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Chicago organization by MLB Pipeline. The outfielder was originally selected by Boston in the first round of the 2024 draft before being included in the trade that sent Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox ahead of last season.
Chicago capped off the week by winning two of three games against the Los Angeles Dodgers, following back-to-back wins over Atlanta.
The week also featured two remarkable pitching performances worth noting. On Saturday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto retired the first 23 batters he faced and carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning before surrendering a leadoff home run. The Dodgers still won that game 7-1 over the White Sox.
Even more impressive, however, was Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, who tossed a one-hitter against Philadelphia on Friday night. He struck out 15 batters in a 6-0 victory and unleashed a pitch clocked at 104.5 mph — the fastest recorded by a starting pitcher since tracking began. Misiorowski became only the fifth pitcher since 1903 to strike out at least 15 batters without issuing a walk while throwing either a no-hitter or a one-hitter.
The others in that exclusive group: Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs, who struck out 20 in a one-hitter on May 6, 1998, against Houston; Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, who struck out 17 in a one-hitter on September 10, 1999, against the New York Yankees; Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals, who struck out 17 in a no-hitter on October 3, 2015, against the New York Mets; and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who struck out 15 in a no-hitter on June 18, 2014, against Colorado. Of that group, only Misiorowski faced the minimum 27 batters.
Elsewhere, the San Francisco Giants pulled off one of the most stunning comebacks in recent memory. Trailing Washington by eight runs heading into the eighth inning Wednesday, the Giants scored five runs in both the eighth and ninth innings to win 11-10. Baseball Savant put San Francisco’s win probability at just 0.2 percent at that point.
Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers opened the eighth with back-to-back home runs. After two walks, Daniel Susac doubled in a run, and two more scored on a groundout and a wild pitch. After Washington pushed the lead back to 10-6, Luis Arraez and Chapman hit consecutive doubles to begin the ninth. Following a walk and a single that loaded the bases, Bryce Eldridge delivered a grand slam to complete the comeback.
According to Sportradar, teams trailing by at least eight runs in the eighth inning or later had lost 4,291 straight games before San Francisco’s win. The last team to accomplish that feat was Cleveland against Tampa Bay back in 2009.
