With about a week’s worth of games in the books around the MLB, the Atlanta Braves are off to a fast start. The Braves improved to a 5-2 record on the young season with a thumping 17-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.
Part of that scoring outburst was catcher Drake Baldwin, who is also the reigning National League Rookie of the Year. He went 1-for-6 in the game with an RBI, but he also scored three times, which placed him in elite company in Braves franchise history.
Baldwin scored for the first time in the game off a double by Austin Riley in the fifth inning and joined Braves legends Hank Aaron and Jimmy Collins as the only players in franchise history to score at least once in each of the team’s first seven games to start the season. Aaron accomplished the feat in 1957, while Collins did so in 1900.
“That’s wild,” Baldwin said after the game. “I’m not even able to wrap my head around it.”
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Aaron is considered to be one of the greatest players in MLB history, mashing 755 home runs and logging an MLB-record 2,297 RBI in his 23-year career. In 1957, when Aaron accomplished this rare feat to begin the season, he ended up leading the MLB that season in runs scored (118), home runs (44) and RBI (132), leading to his only MVP win.
Baldwin burst onto the scene last season and was rewarded with the Rookie of the Year award. He hit 19 home runs and had 80 RBI in the 2025 season. So far in seven games this season, Baldwin has scored nine runs and hit three home runs, both of which lead MLB.
In Braves history, Baldwin is only halfway to the record for runs scored in consecutive games at any point during the season. Bob Horner in 1985 and Roy Hartsfield in 1950 both scored a run in 15 straight games during the season, so Baldwin would have to keep this up for another eight games to match the franchise record.