Braden Montgomery showed up for his big league debut and immediately became part of the fun.<\/p>\n
The Chicago White Sox have been one of baseball\u2019s most pleasant surprises this season. With a 38-32 record, they\u2019re atop the AL Central. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>. 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 P\u00e9rez.<\/p>\n Montgomery is Chicago\u2019s No. 2-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Performance of the week<\/p>\n There 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\u2019 7-1 win<\/a> over the White Sox.<\/p>\n But even that wasn\u2019t as impressive as Milwaukee\u2019s Jacob Misiorowski\u2019s one-hitter against Philadelphia on Friday night. He struck out 15 in a 6-0 win<\/a> and threw a pitch at 104.5 mph, the fastest by a starter since tracking began.<\/p>\n Trivia time<\/p>\n Misiorowski became the fifth pitcher since 1903 to strike out at least 15 with no walks while throwing either a no-hitter or a one-hitter. Who were the others?<\/p>\n Comeback of the week<\/p>\n The San Francisco Giants were eight runs behind in the eighth Wednesday against Washington when they scored five runs in each of the final two innings to win 11-10. San Francisco\u2019s win probability was 0.2% in the eighth according to Baseball Savant<\/a>.<\/p>\n Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers led off the bottom of the eighth with home runs, and after a pair of walks, Daniel Susac doubled home a run. Two more came home on a groundout and a wild pitch.<\/p>\n After the Nats extended the lead to 10-6, Luis Arraez and Chapman led off the bottom of the ninth with consecutive doubles to pull the Giants within three. After a walk and a single loaded the bases, Bryce Eldridge won it with a grand slam.<\/p>\n Teams trailing by at least eight runs in the eighth inning or later had lost 4,291 consecutive games, according to Sportradar. The last team to win after facing such a deficit was Cleveland against Tampa Bay in 2009.<\/p>\n Trivia answer<\/p>\n Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs struck out 20 in a one-hitter on May 6, 1998, against Houston.<\/p>\n Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox struck out 17 in a one-hitter on Sept. 10, 1999, against the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals struck out 17 in a no-hitter on Oct. 3, 2015, against the New York Mets.<\/p>\n Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 15 in a no-hitter on June 18, 2014, against Colorado.<\/p>\n Only Misiorowski faced the minimum 27 batters.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n