Braves' Ozzie Albies Makes Braves Franchise History on Opening Day

ATLANTA – The Atlanta Braves’ 2026 season started with a bang on Friday night. They topped the Kansas City Royals in a 6-0 rout at Truist Park, but the scoring got started with a player who has quickly become the most consistent face in the Braves clubhouse.

OZZIE, WE LOVE HIM!#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/JOdyI9yqny
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 27, 2026

Ozzie Albies, who was batting in the three-hole in the first game of the regular season, jumped on a pitch and sent it to the bleachers. This is the second season in a row that the second baseman has hit the first home run of the season for the club.

The longtime Braves position player made a bit of history in this one.

His start at second base on Friday night was his ninth consecutive Opening Day for the Braves. With this, he broke a tie with Glenn Hubbard for most consecutive starts at second base in franchise history.

“Yeah, he's been a staple here,” manager Walt Weiss said. “He dealt with his share of injuries. He's a really good player, and he's been a good player in this league for a long time.”

Albies finished his day 2-for-4, and his second hit of the day also pushed him up another list of greats to wear a Braves uniform. He moved past Joe Torre into 23rd in total hits, is now nine games away from also passing the former catcher for 27th in club history in games played, and tied Johnny Logan for 20th in runs scored.

The second baseman will look to continue this through the 2026 regular season, as he puts a forgettable 2025 behind him. Albies finished with a .240 average, with a .671 OPS, 16 home runs, and 74 RBIs last season. However, over the last month of the season, he looked to be returning to form after a difficult stretch – in his final 26 games, he batted .304 with an .897 OPS, six home runs, and 24 RBIs.

Unfortunately, he was unable to finish his 2025 season due to a wrist injury, which was similar to the one that cost him two months the previous season.

If he had managed to stretch that over a full 162 games, he would have finished with 37 home runs and 149 RBI. Those would have all been career highs. At least to start the season, he is showing that maybe this season can be a continuation of that performance.

“It's always fun seeing guys have success, but I wouldn't say anybody's surprised by it,” starting pitcher Chris Sale said about his teammate. “Those guys worked really hard. I think Ozzie might have led the league in at-bats or live BPs in spring training. He's a great teammate. He's a fun guy to be around, but you can tell he had a little something going on this year, and he wants to get back on track.”

Sale tossed six shutout innings, en route to his first win of the season, and also made a bit of history. He struck out six Royals, bringing his career total up to 2,585. He passed Braves legend and MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn for 30th place in MLB history. Sale is 23 strikeouts away from passing another Braves legend, Tom Glavine.

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