Kim provides walk-off winner as Braves take series from Dodgers

Sometimes it doesn’t need to make a whole lot of sense.

Ha-Seong Kim, the Braves’ $20-million shortstop who had played in just 31 games this season before Wednesday, provided a pinch-hit, walk-off single to beat the Dodgers 6-5 at Truist Park. Kim hadn’t had a hit since June 3, and hadn’t appeared in a game since Aug. 15.

“Yeah, definitely, it’s been a rough season personally for me, but the team is doing great. So I was always trying to think how can I help the team,” Kim said via Braves team interpreter David Lee. “I feel like I was preparing myself, and I feel like all that hard work and preparation paid off in this moment.”

Kim’s 2026 season was derailed before it ever had a chance to get going.

An offseason finger injury kept him out until May 12. On July 1, he returned to the injured list as the injury to his right middle finger flared up again. On Aug. 3 he was reinstated to the club, but had appeared in just four games since, starting just one and going hitless in three plate appearances.

But in one of the Braves’ biggest games of the season, Kim was called upon to face Dodgers’ left-handed reliever Tanner Scott (1-5) with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth. Kim got ahead 3-0, then fouled off a pair of two-strike pitches before he threw a 97-mph fastball down in the zone over the heart of the plate.

Kim lined a single to left, scoring Lane Thomas from second. The Korean was mobbed between first and second, doused with water while his jersey was ripped off and an empty bubble gum bucket was put on his head.

“I think the (Dodgers) knew that I haven’t been in the box as of late, and the next hitter was the leadoff hitter (Drake Baldwin),” Kim said. “It started 3-0, so I was pretty confident it was going to be fastballs.”

The moment may turn out to be one of the biggest of the year for the Braves, who had been 10-10 in 20 August games before beating the first-place Brewers on Sunday, and now the first-place Dodgers on back-to-back nights. The Braves (78-55) also clinched the season series against the NL West’s top team ahead of Thursday’s series finale.

Wednesday’s win was also the second straight one-run win for the Braves this season and 21st of the season in that category. Kim’s walk-off winner, his first since April 3, 2023, when he played for the Padres, made that number true.

“Just seeing him walk up to the plate and have an incredible at-bat there against a closer who’s had a really successful year,” Braves catcher and designated hitter Drake Baldwin said. “Coming through like that was, I mean, it was awesome. It was pretty special after that, and in the clubhouse, just celebrating that victory.”

Earlier in the night, the Braves had taken a 1-0 lead on a Matt Olson homer in the first, then fell behind 3-1 in the third when Tommy Edman hit a two-run homer off Braves starter Tommy Edman.

The back-and-forth affair swung the direction of the home team in the fourth when Atlanta got three runs. Austin Riley hit a sacrifice fly and Baldwin had a two-run double into the left field corner - left fielder Teoscar Hernández overran the ball as it dropped in behind him in fair territory, a play that put the Braves up 4-3.

Braves catcher Sean Murphy, who missed the first month of the season while recovering from hip surgery, and then missed nearly three months because of a broken finger suffered in May, hit a solo home run with one out in the sixth. His 397-foot shot landed in the front row of seats in left field for his first homer of the season, and first since July 11, 2025, when he hit two in a game against the Cardinals in St. Louis.

Murphy finished a triple shy of the cycle.

That run proved critical as the Dodgers rallied for two in the seventh. Mookie Betts drove in a run with an RBI single off Dylan Lee, and Edman drew a bases-loaded walk against Didier Fuentes. Fuentes escaped bases-loaded jams in the seventh and eighth, crucial moments in a game full of them.

No moment, however, was bigger than Kim’s.

“Definitely grateful,” Kim said. “We really have a great group of guys in that clubhouse. And of course, in a baseball season, there’s going to be lows, and I feel like this year is showing that for me. But I feel like if I continue to put the work in, baseball is going to continue and I’m going to find my ups again.”