{"id":650214,"date":"2026-03-29T09:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T09:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/650214\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T09:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T09:38:24","slug":"former-red-sox-first-baseman-hits-walk-off-grand-slam-in-braves-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/650214\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Red Sox First Baseman Hits Walk Off Grand Slam In Braves Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Braves signed former Boston Red Sox<\/a> first baseman Dominic Smith this offseason, and he hit a walk-off grand slam for the Braves on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Braves faced the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night and trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. The Braves plated two runs to tie it up with just one out on a single by Michael Harris II. The very next batter was Smith, who was making his Braves debut.<\/p>\n

Smith was in the lineup as a designated hitter against right-handed starter Michael Wacha. He hit a walk-off grand slam for his new team, recording his first hit for the club as well. He was 0-3 with a strikeout to that point. Smith had a very strong spring and is trying to carve out a role on the Braves.<\/p>\n

Smith played 84 games for the Red Sox in 2024. He posted a .706 OPS and hit six home runs. It was the second walk-off home run of his nine-year MLB career.<\/p>\n

The designated hitter spot for the Braves is fluid right now, and likely Smith’s best way into the lineup. First base belongs to Matt Olson as long as he’s healthy, and the designated hitter spot will belong to either Drake Baldwin or Sean Murphy when the latter is healthy. However, for now, Smith should get some opportunities as a designated hitter.<\/p>\n

On Friday, with a left-handed starter on the mound, the Braves had Baldwin at designated hitter and Jonah Heim, a switch-hitting catcher behind the plate. The only changes to the lineup on Saturday were Smith playing as a designated hitter, Baldwin catching and Mike Yastrzemski playing left field instead of Eli White.<\/p>\n

Until Murphy is back, Smith and Heim figure to be in a platoon. Smith has played in 756 regular-season games and will need to prove he’s worth keeping around even when Murphy is back.<\/p>\n

More MLB:\u00a0Red Sox Newcomer Caleb Durbin Reveals Why He Made Last-Minute Uniform Change<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Braves signed former Boston Red Sox first baseman Dominic Smith this offseason, and he hit a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-650214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116311797655141378","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}