ATLANTA (AP) — Rookie Drake Baldwin drove in six runs, Ronald Acuña Jr. scored three times and the Atlanta Braves beat San Francisco 9-5 on Monday night, handing the Giants their season-high sixth straight loss.
Baldwin was 3 for 5 and scored 2 runs from the DH slot. Acuña had a double and three walks.
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Atlanta Braves pitcher Bryce Elder (55) works against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
San Francisco Giants pitcher Hayden Birdsong (60) sits in the dugout after being relieved in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Braves shortstop Nacho Alvarez Jr. (67) hits a single in the third inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies, from left, celebrate a win over the San Francisco Giants inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Braves' Drake Baldwin (30) hits a two-RBI single against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Willy Adames was 4 for 5 with a home run, two doubles and two RBIs for the Giants.
The Braves took a 5-1 lead in the first inning thanks to a wild start from Giants starter Hayden Birdsong (4-4), who did not record an out. He walked the first three batters before Baldwin cleared the bases with a three-run double. Birdsong then walked Ozzie Albies and hit Sean Murphy before he was removed. Birdsong also had a wild pitch to Matt Olson and nearly hit Acuña earlier in the inning.
Matt Gage came on and struck out two before giving up a two-run single to Nick Allen.
Bryce Elder (4-6) allowed 11 base runners on eight hits and three walks, but gave up just three runs in five innings. He stranded seven runners and picked up his second straight win.
Aaron Bummer, Rafael Montero and Enyel De Los Santos covered the final four innings, allowing two runs.
Acuña turned in another jaw-dropping play, this time on the basepaths. On what appeared to be a routine single to center field by Baldwin in the fourth inning, Acuña scored from first after running through a stop sign at third base and diving in just ahead of the throw from Adames at shortstop.
After Baldwin gave the Braves a 3-1 lead in the first, Allen's two-run single wrapped up the five-run first inning and put Atlanta firmly in control.
Birdsong threw just 6 of his 25 pitches for strikes in the first inning and now has 17 walks in his last 13 innings. It is the first time in 37 career appearances he did not recorded an out.
Braves RHP Davis Daniel (0-0, 1.80) faces Giants RHP Landen Roupp (4-4, 3.27) on Tuesday.
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Atlanta Braves pitcher Bryce Elder (55) works against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
San Francisco Giants pitcher Hayden Birdsong (60) sits in the dugout after being relieved in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Braves shortstop Nacho Alvarez Jr. (67) hits a single in the third inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies, from left, celebrate a win over the San Francisco Giants inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Braves' Drake Baldwin (30) hits a two-RBI single against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) — Their red jerseys stood out against the green pitch. Most were teenage girls. Some had fled war. Others had never played in an organized soccer league or set foot in a major stadium before.
Yet when they took the field at Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco, they marked Sudan’s first appearance in international women’s soccer since a civil war erupted in a country where women’s participation in sports has long been controversial.
“My goal is to lift up soccer in my country,” Nura Mohamed, the 17-year-old team captain, told The Associated Press.
“It’s a beautiful, unique feeling because, at the end of the day, I just love playing.”
Sudan’s under-17 women’s national team traveled to Morocco last week for qualifying matches on the road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The inexperienced squad suffered heavy defeats against Comoros, conceding 30 goals in two matches. Many of the players broke down in tears after the final whistle in front of a dozen cheering fans.
They faced an older, fitter, and more experienced opponent. Unable to assemble a senior women’s squad in time, Sudan’s soccer federation entered a younger team to avoid forfeiting its place in the qualifiers. They only started training weeks ago.
“The difference between us and the others is huge. We cannot yet compete at the highest level," Burhan Tia, a veteran Sudanese soccer coach who oversees all of Sudan’s women’s national teams, said after the first match, a 17–0 defeat.
“Comoros has many players competing in Europe, our team is mainly made up of schoolgirls."
Sudan’s women’s soccer collapsed when civil war erupted in 2023. For federation officials, debuting this young squad in Casablanca after years of conflict marks an important step in keeping women's soccer alive in Sudan.
“Some traveled long distances just to attend training. Many are separated from their families, yet they continue to work hard and pursue their dream," Manal Ali Bushra, a businesswoman who heads the women’s soccer committee, told the AP.
To support that vision, Ali Bushra said the federation is working on infrastructure projects, including a planned sports city and the renovation of key stadiums in safer parts of the country. She declined to answer questions about the women’s program budget and funds.
Tia knew the magnitude of the challenge when he accepted the job of rebuilding a shattered team.
“First, I had to find girls who played soccer. Then, once I found girls who played, I had to make sure they were the right age,” he said. “Then I needed to convince their parents to let them miss classes for training.”
With the league suspended, his scouting trips took him to schools across Sudan and to neighboring Egypt, where many families had fled the war. He recruited 10 players from teams and academies in Cairo, with the rest drawn from Sudanese cities.
Tia would have liked to recruit from conflict-hit areas like Darfur or Kordofan, a region known for producing Sudan’s top athletes. But many girls had lost their identification documents, making it impossible to verify their ages under international regulations. The war has also shattered transportation, turning journeys between cities that once took hours into perilous trips lasting days.
On the field, the players’ lack of experience was evident. Several struggled with basic positioning, failing to hold the offside line or maintain tactical discipline. Throughout the matches, they repeatedly looked to the sidelines for instructions from the coach and his assistant.
The United Nations has described the war in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It began in 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into fighting marked by mass killings, rape and ethnic violence. More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to U.N. figures, and over 14 million have been displaced, with famine and disease spreading across parts of the country.
The war halted every sports activity, including the women’s soccer league, which was officially established after the 2019 progressive revolution that ousted President Omar al-Bashir. His three-decade Islamist rule was marked by Public Order Laws that rights groups said restricted women’s freedoms. Even after the revolution, prominent Sudanese preacher Abdulhay Yousif said the establishment of a women’s football league was aimed at undermining religion.
“The idea of women running, jumping, sweating, and even something as simple as their bodies being visible in motion, was seen by Bashir’s Islamist regime as producing fitna, which in a Sudanese context was understood as sexual or moral chaos,” Liv Tønnessen, a political scientist researching gender politics in Sudan, told the AP.
“So when women step onto a soccer pitch, they are directly confronting that entire logic. They are not just present in a male-dominated sports arena, they are moving freely in it, on their own terms,” Tønnessen, a former guest researcher in a women-only university in Sudan, added.
Beyond institutional hurdles, players also faced a wave of sexist abuse online. On the national team’s social media accounts, many commenters mocked them for big defeats. Others posted the phrase “go back to the kitchen,” in multiple languages.
While Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s military government has allowed international soccer trips for teenage girls, the U.N. has documented sexual and gender-based violence by the Sudanese Armed Forces, which he commands.
Tønnessen sees the state backing as a calculated effort by the military to project legitimacy. By sponsoring the team, she said, the army attempts to signal that the state is functioning normally and to align itself with the spirit of the 2019 revolution.
Hala Al-Karib, a prominent Sudanese women’s rights activist, dismissed critics who say the team is being used to portray a more progressive image on women’s rights.
“The main challenge for me is a reform of the federation,” she told the AP, citing a lack of investment in and support for women’s soccer in Sudan.
Back on the field in Casablanca, the politics, war and debate faded away, leaving only a group of teenagers chasing a ball.
Sudan's U-17 women's national team, left, shakes hand with Comorros women's national team, ahead of their soccer match during qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, in Casablanca, Morocco, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo)
Sudan's U-17 women's national team players sing the national anthem before a soccer match against Comoros, during qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, in Casablanca, Morocco, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo)
Sudan's U-17 women's national team, in red, plays a soccer match against Comoros, during qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, in Casablanca, Morocco, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo)
Sudan's U-17 women's national team players, in red, defend the ball during a soccer match against Comoros, during qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, in Casablanca, Morocco, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo)
Sudan's U-17 women's national team warms up before a soccer match against Comoros, during qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, in Casablanca, Morocco, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo)
