Braden Montgomery showed up for his big league debut and immediately became part of the fun.The Chicago White Sox have been one of baseball’s most pleasant surprises this season. With a 38-32 record, they’re atop the AL Central. That’s after losing 102 games last year and a record 121 in 2024. So the vibes were already good when Montgomery played his first major league game Tuesday night.Then he sent a drive to left in the bottom of the 10th for a two-run homer to win the game, 6-5 over the Atlanta Braves. Montgomery became the fifth player to hit a walk-off homer in his debut, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He joined Billy Parker, Josh Bard, Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Pérez.Montgomery is Chicago’s No. 2-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The outfielder was a first-round draft pick by Boston in 2024, then he was part of the trade that sent Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox before last season.The White Sox finished the week by taking two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers. That was after beating Atlanta twice in a row.
Performance of the weekThere are two obvious candidates this week. Yoshinobu Yamamoto retired the first 23 batters he faced Saturday and took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before allowing a leadoff homer in the Dodgers’ 7-1 win over the White Sox.But even that wasn’t as impressive as Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski’s one-hitter against Philadelphia on Friday night. He struck out 15 in a 6-0 win and threw a pitch at 104.5 mph, the fastest by a starter since tracking began.
