Last Night In Baseball: A Historically Rare Walk-Off For A White Sox Rookie

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Braden Montgomery made his major-league debut for the White Sox on Tuesday, after being called up earlier in the day. The former first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2024 came to Chicago in the Garrett Crochet trade before the 2025 season, and was then ranked a top-100 prospect by numerous publications in each of the last two years. He has thrived both at Double- and Triple-A this season after a three-level stint in 2025 saw him end his campaign at the former, and now he’s in the majors and expected to play all the time. Good thing he was slotted into the lineup on day one, too, because it ended up winning the White Sox their game against the Braves. Montgomery batted sixth in the lineup and ended up going 2-for-5 with a run and three RBIs, the first of which came on a single in the fourth to cut the Braves’ lead to one, and the other two? A two-run, walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the White Sox down 5-4. This is a storybook kind of ending for a debut, and it’s also just not something that happens in MLB often. Montgomery’s walk-off homer in his debut is just the fifth instance ever in the league’s lengthy history. The last was over a decade ago, when Carlos Pérez pulled it off for the Angels, in 2015, and outside of the very odd stretch where there were back-to-back seasons, there is usually considerable time in between them. Montgomery’s name is in the history books now, however, and even better for Chicago is that it came on a night when the first-place Guardians lost: the White Sox are now just half-a-game out of first place in the American League Central, and three games up on a wild-card spot. Chicago lost 102 games in 2025, a year after setting the modern loss record with 121 defeats in 2024. Things are changing in a hurry on the South Side. This is what much of Tuesday’s Pirates-Dodgers game looked like while Paul Skenes was on the mound. And this is what it looked like after Skenes exited. Skenes went six innings and allowed two runs on six hits and a pair of walks. The pitcher that came on in relief of him, Wilber Dotel, didn’t record an out and allowed six runs. Brandon Bidois, who relieved Dotel, gave up another four and was also pulled mid-inning. The next two relievers the Pirates used managed to get out of the next 2 ⅓ innings unscathed, but it was too late: the Dodgers would win, 12-2, despite Skenes giving up just two runs over six. That 10-run seventh was the cause of it all — it was relentless. Catcher Dalton Rushing singled to start the inning, then second baseman Alex Freeland followed with a single of his own. A throwing error by Pirates’ backstop Henry Davis on a pickoff attempt allowed Rushing to score, and then DH Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland. Center fielder Andy Pages would homer, as seen above, then first baseman Freddie Freeman walked leading to a single by shortstop Mookie Betts. At this point, there were still no outs, and then Bidois entered the game. He walked third baseman Max Muncy to load the bases for right fielder Kyle Tucker, who reached on a fielder’s choice — but not one that registered an out — that scored Freeman. Left fielder Ryan Ward then singled in Betts to make it 8-2, and it was only then that the first out was recorded: Rushing struck out in his second at-bat of the inning. Freeland and Ohtani then both walked with the bases loaded to bring in two more runs, Pages logged the second out on a sac fly that scored another run and Freeman finally ended the scoring with an RBI single that made it 12-2. And exhale. The good news for the Pirates is that a loss in a game with a 10-run inning counts the same in the standings as any other. The bad news for Pittsburgh is that the bullpen is and has been a problem, and will continue to be until it gets some new arms in it. That single in the seventh for Freeman was more than just the one that tied a bow on the Dodgers’ offensive explosion. It was also career hit No. 2,500 for Freddie Freeman, making him the only active player with that many and just 500 hits from joining the still-rare 3,000-hit club. Freeman had 153 hits in 2024 and 164 in 2025. He is on pace for 171 in ‘26 (though, he will surely take more days off and drop that pacing by a few eventually), which would have him roughly 400 away from 3,000 by season’s end shortly after turning 37 years old — Freeman’s birthday is in mid-September. Freeman is still just such a good hitter, even in his mid-30s. He will surely someday see a real decline, but he’s maybe 3.5 good seasons away from becoming just the 34th player in MLB history to collect at least 3,000 hits, and given he’s hitting .284/.366/.481 right now, “3.5 good seasons” still feels very doable. Freeman, by the way, is just 15 hits shy of entering the top 100 all-time: Jimmy Ryan and Buddy Bell are currently ahead of him, and if he does get another 100 hits in 2026, he’ll finish the season ranked 84th. The Reds struck early, going up 2-0 on the Padres with runs in the second and third innings, but then their offense shut down. San Diego had a similar situation, answering with a pair in the bottom of the third to tie the game up 2-2. But then there was silence from the Padres’ bats for the rest of regulation as well. Though, some of that has a lot to do with the play of Cincinnati’s defense — if not for Blake Dunn out in right field, San Diego would have had its first lead of the game in the eighth inning. Dunn started the game in center, even, but moved over to right in the bottom of the seventh after Dane Myers came into the game as a pinch-hitter and then stayed in the lineup. So it’s possible that this catch isn’t even made without Dunn shifting over. Both the Padres and Reds scored a run in the 10th, but Cincinnati put two on the board in the 11th. And guess who started the inning already on second base, and scored what would end up being the game-winning run? That’s right, Blake Dunn, courtesy a home run by rookie third baseman Sal Stewart. There is a bright side in defeat for the Padres here, at least. The team has not been hitting well for… most of 2026, actually. Third baseman Manny Machado had two hits and showed a little life offensively, though, while center fielder Jackson Merrill got over the Mendoza Line with a pair of hits. And Fernando Tatis Jr., playing second base, went 4-for-6 at the top of the lineup. None of this means San Diego’s bats are fixed, but of late there might be some signs that things are improving. And they have to, soon. Las Vegas Ballpark, where the Athletics are currently hosting a homestand, is an offensive haven. If you weren’t aware of that already, the two games that have already been played there this week should do the trick. On Monday, the Athletics and Brewers combined for 29 runs and a whole lot of hits and even more total bases. On Tuesday, the scoring was down, but the big knocks were not: the A’s went yard five times in a 7-5 win over Milwaukee. First baseman Nick Kurtz got things started for the A’s with a shot to right-center that. Rookie center fielder Henry Bolte then crushed his first big-league homer an inning later, blasting an 86-mph changeup 446 feet to right-center, just under 107 mph off the bat. Bolte, by the way, spent his 2026 before his call-up playing his home games in this same ballpark on the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators — he batted .364/.446/.807 with 10 homers in those 30 games. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom would add another dinger in the fifth, this one a shorter 354-foot shot, but it got out of the park in a hurry. Backstop Jonah Heim would go big just a couple of batters later, taking a changeup on the outside part of the zone 426 feet away to center field to make it 6-3, Athletics. And the last dinger came off the bat of second baseman Zack Gelof, who also managed to take a pitch up and away in the zone — a 98.2 mph four-seamer — and drive it over the wall in center, 427 feet away. Here is the thing about this park. It has the second-highest elevation of any stadium used for MLB games, behind only Coors Field in Colorado. It’s much hotter in Vegas than it is in Denver, however — the game-time temperature was 94 degrees — so in addition to the thin air, it’s also warmer air, which makes baseballs travel even further, and unlike with Chase Field in Arizona, there isn’t the option of closing the roof and cranking the air conditioning to change the environment on a real hot one. The park’s dimensions are designed to account for this to a degree, as it’s 340 feet down the lines, 380 feet to left- and right-center and 415 feet to straightaway center, with a 13-foot fence in much of left field to account for the pull power of right-handed hitters. But between the altitude, temperature and the fact that the wind blows out without impediment, well. There’s a reason the Aviators are hitting .317/.393/.514 in home games this year, and that their pitchers have a 6.28 ERA in that stadium, and it doesn’t necessarily come down to the quality of the players playing there. Enjoy the offense, and just know that future free-agent pitches from the A’s to pitchers will focus on how not like Las Vegas Ballpark their new home is being designed to play like. Royals’ shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. gets a lot of attention for his bat — and he should — but his defense seems to get better and better each season after a rough start in the majors. It’s not just his .277/.352/.451 line that has him leading the American League in wins above replacement, but that he can easily make plays like this, all the time. Just don’t hit the ball in Bobby Witt Jr.’s direction anymore. Simple, right? You guys are pros make it happen. The Phillies handled the Blue Jays in their series opener on Monday, and Tuesday was looking like a second W for Philadelphia late. While the two had been tied 1-1 since the sixth, the Phillies broke the scoring drought in the top of the ninth to take the lead, on a double by second baseman Bryson Stott that drove in first baseman Bryce Harper. That’s not how things would end, however. Closer Jhoan Duran came on in the ninth to shut Toronto down, but instead, he allowed a leadoff single to left fielder Jesús Sánchez, who was replaced by pinch-runner Myles Straw. Right fielder Yohendrick Piñango then singled Straw to third, and Daulton Varsho ended as a pinch-runner for him, representing the winning run. Varsho would then steal second, and a wild pitch by Duran brought Straw home and moved Varsho to third. There were still no outs when catcher Brandon Valenzuela strode to the plate, and while Duran fired a 99.9 mph fastball to the lefty, he also left it middle-middle. Duran, even with giving up these runs, has a 2.08 ERA on the season — he’s a shutdown closer, and the expectation when he comes in is that the other team is toast. Here, though, some sloppiness combined with some good pieces of hitting, and the Jays came away with the dub. Between his early struggles and an oblique strain that resulted in his first IL stint, Mariners’ backstop Cal Raleigh won’t be matching his historic 2025 this season. Getting him back is a priority for a Seattle team trying to shed a slow start that was caused by far more than just Raleigh, however, and it’s looking like it’s almost time. Big Dumper went deep twice on Tuesday in a rehab appearance with Triple-A Tacoma. The Mariners were victorious on Tuesday at the big-league level, with DH Randy Arozarena hitting a walk-off homer against the Orioles to give Seattle a 6-5 win, and they sit three games up in the AL West at present. They are going to need more than they have right now to threaten the best teams in the league, however, and getting Raleigh back will be huge for that. On June 1 against the Rays, Tigers’ catcher Dillon Dingler went 4-for-5 with four runs, a double, four RBIs and two homers. Last night against the Twins, Dingler had a repeat performance, going 4-for-5 with three runs, a double, four RBIs and another pair of dingers. It’s been some June for him so far, as he’s batting .393/.438/1.000 with five long balls in seven games. Dingler didn’t need to go quite so hard this time around — the Rays’ game was a 10-9 win for the Tigers, this one a 10-4 affair — but it does serve as fuel for what has been his best season in the bigs to this point. Dingler was already one of the better-hitting catchers out there — not a star like Cal Raleigh or Will Smith, but significantly better offensively than most backstops — but this year he’s raised that profile: he’s hitting .248/.329/.528 with 16 homers, and is one walk shy of last season’s total amassed over 126 games.