ATLANTA — When you’re the Atlanta Braves, nearing the end of your first losing season since 2017 and possibly missing the postseason for the first time since then, you take victories however you can get them.
In a way, they got two Sunday: a sweep-averting 8-3 win against the Houston Astros and a home run by Sandy León, the first since 2021 for a popular veteran who catcher Drake Baldwin credits for helping him become a leading candidate for NL Rookie of the Year.
León, 36, homered off former Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, who made his 10th MLB appearance of 2025 — one in a brief reunion with the Braves in June, nine with Houston — and pitched for the first time this season at Truist Park.
“That was awesome,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of the seventh-inning, two-run homer from León, who was in his third game and first start of the season. “He did a masterful job behind the plate. Here’s a guy that’s been doing this a long time, in big games. So he knows what he’s doing back there when he’s putting them fingers down.”
León is a 13-year veteran who played in four postseasons and won a World Series ring with Boston in 2018, catching 10 playoff games that year.
Since 2022, however, he’s played only sparingly in the majors and spent most of the past two seasons at Triple-A Gwinnett, where he formed a friendship with Baldwin. They had adjacent lockers at spring training this year and talked each morning.
León had a call-up in late July when the Braves briefly used three catchers, and was brought up again last week after catcher Sean Murphy went on the IL for a season-ending hip injury that required surgery.
He helped guide Braves starter Joey Wentz and four relievers through some sticky spots Sunday against a powerful Houston lineup that had outscored the Braves 17-5 in the first two games of the series.
“Sandy is going to help anybody that he catches,” Snitker said. “I love having him here so Drake can nuzzle up and talk about things. He’s a wonderful mentor to Drake. There’s a lot of respect there. In Triple A, the guys spoke volumes on what he does down there. And not just on the field. Just a teammate and veteran presence that he is, you can’t quantify that.”
#Braves win 8-3 to avoid being swept by Astros. They went 3-6 on the homestand, winning one game in each series vs. Mariners, Cubs and ‘Stros.
— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) September 14, 2025
The Braves start their final road trip Monday against the Washington Nationals, who they’ll play in four games across three days (a May 21 rainout necessitated a Tuesday doubleheader). They’ll have a day off on Thursday, then face the Detroit Tigers beginning Friday.
They return to Truist Park for the final week of the season, closing with three games against the Nationals and three against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Takeaways from the penultimate homestand:
Matt Olson’s surge, day-game thing
Matt Olson hit a game-tying solo homer in the first inning Sunday, which probably wasn’t surprising to anyone who’s kept tabs on the Braves first baseman.
Olson is on one of his torrid stretches now, and almost no active baseball player hits more day-game homers.
It was Olson’s seventh homer in the past 17 games, and he also had a single and a walk to give him a .350 average and 1.146 OPS in that span. He had homered once in his previous 34 games and had a .721 OPS for that period.
Olson’s homer was his 25th this season and the 284th of his career, 116 of which have come in 430 day games with the Athletics and Braves. He has 168 homers in 780 night games.
Only New York Yankees star Aaron Judge, the preeminent slugger of the past decade, has more homers in day games than Olson since both players made their debuts in 2016.
Olson has homered once every 19.6 plate appearances in night games throughout his career, and once every 15.8 PAs in day games.
Meanwhile, Judge has 120 homers in 391 day games, or one every 14.1 plate appearances. He had 242 in 740 night games, which worked out to one homer every 13.4 PAs before the Yankees played Sunday night. So, a slightly better ratio at night, compared to a wide disparity in Olson’s day-night homer splits.
For those wondering, Shohei Ohtani, who debuted in 2018, had 78 home runs in 1,207 day-game plate appearances before Sunday, or one every 15.5. That’s nearly identical to Olson’s rate in day games.
Ohtani has homered at basically the same rate regardless of game time, with a rate of one every 15.6 PAs at night.
One other note: Olson’s homer Sunday was a 110 mph drive with a 47-degree launch angle, tied for steepest trajectory of his career and the second-steepest in the majors this season, behind a 49-degree homer by the Baltimore Orioles’ Adley Rutschman.
Michael Harris’ tumultuous season
It’s hard to do what Michael Harris II has this season: be the best hitter in the majors for four weeks, and still finish as one of the worst hitters in the majors for the season as a whole.
Make no mistake, barring another late surge, that’s where the center fielder is going to be, among the worst five qualified hitters in baseball.
From July 22 through Aug. 18, Harris led the majors in average (.426), slugging percentage (.778), OPS (1.214), hits (46) and triples (3), and tied for the lead in extra-base hits (19).
Beginning with a four-hit series at St. Louis in the last games before the All-Star break — when he first incorporated a new hands-high positioning in his stance — Harris raised his average and OPS from .205 and .539 on July 10, to .259/.708 after home runs in consecutive games Aug. 18-19.
Just when it looked like he’d figured things out and might be able to finish the season with respectable stats, though, Harris’ bat went cold as fast as it had heated up. Now, it’s in the deep freezer.
He was 10-for-82 (.122) with a .310 OPS in his past 22 games before Sunday, when he went 1-for-4 with an infield single to finish the homestand 2-for-31, his only two RBIs in the nine games coming on sacrifice flies.
For the season, he is back in the bottom five among MLB-qualified hitters with a .648 OPS that’s anchored by a majors-worst .258 OBP and a staggering strikeouts-to-walks ratio of 120/14. His 14 walks are also the fewest among MLB qualifiers.
Two things have remained consistent for Harris: strong defense (he had running catches Sunday in the right-center gap to rob Christian Walker and going straight back at the track to rob Yainer Diez) and that dearth of walks.
The man will not take a free pass unless every ball is at least several inches outside the strike zone, and sometimes even not then. He has one walk in his past 44 games and 180 plate appearances.
Harris, 24, is signed through 2030 with salaries of $8 million in 2026, $9 million in 2027, $10 million each in 2028 and 2029, and $12 million in 2030. There is also a $15 million club option for 2031 with a $5 million buyout, and a $20 million option for 2032 with a $5 million buyout.
Ozzie Albies sizzling vs. lefties
What’s been especially encouraging about Ozzie Albies’ second-half improvement is the way he’s feasted on left-handed pitching lately, after the switch-hitting second baseman struggled in that area for much of the season.
Albies put the Braves ahead to stay Sunday with a two-run single in the fifth inning off lefty starter Framber Valdez, then added a sixth-inning double against lefty Steven Okert.
That made him 23-for-56 (.411) against lefties in 44 games since July 29, the highest average in the majors among hitters with at least 50 plate appearances during that period. Albies has eight extra-base hits, including four homers in 29 at-bats against lefties since Aug. 26, with an MLB-best 1.542 OPS against them in that span.
“He’s the real deal again against left-handers, that’s been for a while now,” Snitker said.
This severe uptick against left-handers came after Albies hit .246 with a .297 slugging percentage in his first 138 at-bats against lefties this season, down dramatically from his career performance from that side of the plate.
Albies debuted in 2017 and hit .336 against lefties through last season, which was the highest average in baseball during that period among players with at least 750 at-bats against lefties.
Some Braves officials believe his struggles in the first half, from both sides, not just vs. lefties, could be due in part to weakness in the wrist he fractured in July 2024, which sidelined him for two months. That might have been a season-ending injury if Albies had not pushed hard to get back for a late-September playoff drive.
(Photo: Dale Zanine / Imagn Images)
