Rounding third base and ready to face a mob of teammates at home plate was quite the experience for the 23-year-old Montgomery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was just surreal,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I couldn\u2019t even hear anything. The crowd was pretty loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group of guys. This stadium. This city. It\u2019s really cool to see it from the outside. And being a part of the inside is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CTC-L-sox-braves028.jpg\")
Chicago White Sox right fielder Braden Montgomery hits a walk-off two-run home run in the tenth inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves at Rate Field in Chicago on June 9, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Just four other players in major-league history have belted walk-off home runs in their MLB debuts, reported MLB researcher Sarah Langs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special debut,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable said. \u201cBraden is someone we all view as a special player and special players do special things.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come through in that situation regardless of the history of it was huge for him and huge for this group. Obviously, you love to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sox (35-31) are a half-game behind the Cleveland Guardians after the dramatic triumph.<\/p>\n
Matt Olson\u2019s two home runs helped give Atlanta (45-22) an early 4-0 lead. Miguel Vargas hit a two-run home run in the third for the Sox, Montgomery singled home Jacob Gonzalez for his first major-league hit in the fourth, then Gonzales singled home Vargas in the seventh to tie it up.<\/p>\n
Montgomery said that he had two walk-off home runs in the minors against the Bowling Green Hot Rods last year.<\/p>\n
The switch-hitter, who was batting from the left side of the plate, knew it was a good hit when he tagged Raisel Iglesias\u2019 changeup, but didn\u2019t know it would clear the fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no clue,\u201d he said. \u201cI hit it and I thought it was at least going over (left fielder Mike Yastrzemski\u2019s) head. That was \u2026 yeah \u2026 that left me speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montgomery is ranked the Sox\u2019s No. 2 prospect by MLB.com and was called up Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Montgomery is the 12th player in the organization to make his major-league debut this season, joining Sam Antonacci, Tyler Davis, Duncan Davitt, Jacob Gonzalez, Munetaka Murakami, Tanner Murray, Rikuu Nishida, Jedixson Paez, David Sandlin, Noah Schultz and Tyler Schweitzer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re bringing up players who are hungry to learn and get better,\u201d Sox General Manager Chris Getz said. \u201cThey want to be major-league players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting these guys in our clubhouse and around these teammates. They kind of just feed off of each other. Every clubhouse is different. Every year is different. This one, we\u2019ve had a lot of debuts and it\u2019s gone well since they have gotten here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant Taylor (2-0) picked up the win in relief, one of six pitchers the Sox used. The pitching staff is in a state of flux.<\/p>\n
Originally, Davis Martin was penciled in as the starter Tuesday. But that changed to Erick Fedde getting the start and changed again to Brandon Eisert getting the nod as an opener with Fedde taking over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still sorting through some of these starters,\u201d Getz said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably going to be that way the next week or so. That\u2019s why you will see some TBA associated with some of these games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to sort through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venable erased two of the TBAs after Tuesday\u2019s game, saying Martin will face former Sox star Chris Sale on Wednesday and Anthony Key will trade pitches with Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Getz said the shifting has nothing to do with players being injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a break and trying to find the appropriate amount of rest to avoid a lack of production or a potential injury issue,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re having discussions on how to map out this homestand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roster roulette<\/p>\n
In addition to Montgomery\u2019s call-up, the Sox called up left-handed pitcher Joe Rock from Charlotte.<\/p>\n
To make room for this duo, they sent down outfielder Rikuu Nishida and right-handed pitcher David Sandlin to Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Rock, 25, was traded to the Sox from Tampa Bay on May 19 for infielder Oliver Dunn. He had no record and a 4.00 ERA in four starts at Charlotte with 13 strikeouts in nine innings.<\/p>\n
He figures to get some innings in during this uncertain time for the Sox starters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can start, I can relieve \u2014 whatever they need,\u201d Rock said.<\/p>\n
The Sox also transferred outfielder Austin Hays, who has a left calf strain, to the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary announcer Bob Costas was at Rate Field on Tuesday as a part of a 1980s throwback broadcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,9099,6080,192,49,90261,4,256,4688,8567,10676],"class_list":["post-722074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baseball","tag-bob-costas","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-braves","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chsn-broadcast","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-mlb-debut","tag-rate-field","tag-walk-off-home-run"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116724113473063665","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722074","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=722074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}