From Forgotten to Fearless: Braves Ha-Seong Kim Is Delivering When It Counts

Ha-seong Kim has had a tumultuous season, to say the least. But Friday night proved he could be writing a very different ending to 2026 after all.

The Atlanta Braves badly needed to snap out of a funk that had them scoring three or fewer runs in four straight games, and Friday's game against the Phillies delivered exactly the kind of chaos they needed. Matt Olson got things started with his 38th home run of the season, a solo shot that ended his personal 15-game homerless drought.

Chris Sale ran into some trouble in the bottom of the second, allowing a bases-loaded double, but was otherwise sharp. The score sat at 3-1 until Austin Riley took Aaron Nola deep for a solo homer in the seventh, and Sean Murphy tied it at three in the ninth to force extras. Both teams tacked on a run in the first extra frame — a Justin Crawford single for Philadelphia, a Mauricio Dubón sacrifice fly for Atlanta — before Luis Arráez plated another run for the Phillies in the top of the 11th, leaving the Braves needing to find some magic of their own.

That's when Kim, who had entered the game as a pinch runner for Sean Murphy back in the ninth, stepped to the plate and lined a 1-1 pitch past a diving Bryson Stott to score Ozzie Albies and tie the game once again. The next batter, Drake Baldwin, doubled into the gap to bring home Kim and walk off a wild win for Atlanta.

It was a signature moment, but hardly an isolated one. Kim's turnaround has actually been building for weeks. It started on Aug. 26, when he came off the bench as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers and singled off Tanner Scott to secure a walk-off win. When the calendar flipped to September, he kept producing — going a perfect 3-for-3 against the Washington Nationals on Sept. 1 in what was easily his best game of the season, despite Atlanta losing 9-5.

He followed that up with a double the very next day in a 9-0 blowout win over those same Nationals, then delivered again on Thursday against Tampa Bay, collecting two hits — including a two-RBI single in the eighth inning that provided crucial insurance runs immediately after Austin Riley's go-ahead single had broken a scoreless tie.

The numbers back up the eye test. Kim is hitting .353 in September with an .801 OPS, worlds better than his dismal .362 OPS for the season as a whole.

With the regular season winding down, these games are taking on a playoff feel, and the Braves are going to need contributions from some unlikely places if they want to make a deep run into October. Right now, the unlikeliest hero of all might be Ha-seong Kim. He knows these games matter more, and when given the chance, he's playing like it. If he can keep coming through in big moments the way he has lately, he could give Atlanta a spark nobody saw coming.

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