Mike Yastrzemski Speaks Out on Team's Confidence After Skid

The Atlanta Braves were the best team in baseball through early June, sitting at 45-21 and looking like they might run away with the NL East.

Then everything fell apart.

Atlanta went just 5-14 from June 9 through July 2, a three-week skid that wiped out most of the cushion the team had built and left the clubhouse looking for answers.

But the Braves have started to steady things over the past week, winning four of their last seven games heading into the All-Star break, and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski feels like the vibe in the locker room is starting to change.

"You can't just claim that things are back to the way they were, but it's a good step forward," Yastrzemski said after Thursday's 10-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. "I think we're regaining our confidence, knowing we're never out of a game."

The 35-year-old put a stamp on that statement with his bat on Thursday, crushing a 403-foot grand slam off reliever Dennis Santana in the ninth inning to blow the game open.

It was his sixth home run of the year and his third career grand slam, and it helped the Braves take the rubber match of the series at PNC Park.

Matt Olson also went deep, hitting his 25th homer of the season while tying Dale Murphy's franchise record of 740 games played in a row.

Eight of the nine starters picked up at least one hit in the win, and the offense racked up 11 hits as a team.

Yastrzemski signed a two-year, $23 million deal with Atlanta back in December 2025 after spending most of his career with the San Francisco Giants.

The good news is that he has started to heat up this month, batting .280 with two home runs, nine RBI and more walks than strikeouts through the first nine games of July.

Atlanta still sits at 54-38 and holds first place in the NL East despite the rough patch.

The team heads to St. Louis this weekend to face the Cardinals before the All-Star break, and there is still work to do.

The club has dealt with rotation injuries for much of the year and has been looking into trade deadline options to help fix the pitching staff.

But if the lineup keeps swinging the way it did Thursday and guys like Yastrzemski keep finding their groove, Atlanta can head into the second half feeling a lot better about where things stand than it did just a week ago.