Four ATL Home Runs Erase 3-0 Hole, Braves Edge Padres 6-5
Atlanta trailed 3-0 after two innings and answered with four home runs — including a three-run shot that swung the win probability from 59% to 88% in a single swing. The Braves held on 6-5 as San Diego's eighth-inning rally fell one run short.
San Diego came out swinging. A walk to Tatis Jr. plated Sheets in the second, and two batters later Rengifo singled to right to score both Cronenworth and Fermin, pushing the Padres to a 3-0 lead. Rengifo finished 2-for-5 with 2 RBI on the night and looks like he was the one Padre who genuinely hurt Atlanta. The deficit felt real. Then Harris II hit a 420-foot shot to right center to get one back, but San Diego still led 3-1 heading into the middle innings.
The fourth inning is where this game turned completely. Albies went deep to right center at 398 feet to make it 3-2, and then Dominic Smith delivered the decisive blow — a 392-foot homer to right that scored Harris II and Dubón, flipping the scoreboard to 5-3 Atlanta. That single swing moved Atlanta's win probability from 59% to 88%, a 28-point jump that effectively decided the game. Smith finished 1-for-3 with 3 RBI and a run scored, and the story of the night was clearly that at-bat. Baldwin added a solo shot to right in the seventh at 370 feet to push the lead to 6-3, and at that point Atlanta appeared to have this locked up.
Chris Sale did his part on the mound — 6.0 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, and 11 strikeouts. Eleven punchouts in six innings is the kind of outing that makes a lineup feel helpless, and it looks like Sale kept San Diego from doing any real damage after that second-inning burst. The Padres made it interesting in the eighth when Ty France hit a 395-foot homer to left that scored Machado, cutting it to 6-5. France went 1-for-4 with 2 RBI and gave San Diego a pulse. But Raisel Iglesias came on and threw a clean inning — 2 hits, 0 runs, 2 strikeouts — to slam the door. Atlanta wins 6-5, powered by four home runs from four different players and a starting pitching line that, despite the early damage, kept the Padres from ever truly breaking the game open.