Braves Punch Playoff Ticket as Harris, Acuña and Olson Go Deep in 6-2 Rout of Astros
Three two-run homers — including Matt Olson's 40th of the year — power Atlanta into October for the 8th time in 9 seasons, a year after missing the playoffs entirely. The magic number for the NL East is now three.
The Atlanta Braves are going back to the postseason. Michael Harris II, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson each launched two-run home runs Friday night as Atlanta beat the Houston Astros 6-2, clinching at least an NL Wild Card spot and setting up a chance to close out the NL East as soon as this weekend.
It's the Braves' eighth playoff berth in nine years — and their first trip back after a jarring absence in 2025, when a 76-86 finish snapped a run of seven straight postseason appearances and six consecutive division titles. Atlanta reached 90 wins for the fifth time in the last eight seasons, according to the ESPN game recap.
Three Swings, One Ticket
Harris got the party started in the fourth inning, driving a first-pitch slurve from Astros starter Peter Lambert 367 feet for his 26th homer of the season. Acuña followed in the seventh, turning a one-out walk into a scoring chance before crushing a 369-foot line drive to left for his 19th long ball of a season badly interrupted by hamstring trouble. Olson capped it in the ninth with his 40th of the year, becoming the fifth player in franchise history with multiple 40-homer seasons — he set the club record with 54 in 2023.
Braves right-hander Tyler Mahle, acquired midseason from the Giants, improved to 4-1 with a 1.28 ERA over eight starts in Atlanta. Lambert, by contrast, allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out six, extending his winless streak to 12 straight starts. The win pushed Atlanta's lead over Philadelphia in the NL East to five games with eight left to play, trimming the Braves' magic number to three.
"EVERYTHING YOU GET IN THIS LEAGUE IS EARNED. GREAT GROUP, WHAT THEY'VE OVERCOME THIS YEAR, AND HOPEFULLY SOME BIGGER CELEBRATIONS AHEAD." — Braves manager Walt Weiss
Outfielder Michael Harris II made clear a wild-card berth is just the floor for this group. "We've got our eyes on bigger and better things," he said after the game, via the Associated Press account. "We're trying to win the East."
The comeback carries extra weight given the roster's health struggles: Acuña missed large stretches with recurring left hamstring strains, including a shutdown that began June 9, before working his way back into the middle of a pennant race. For Houston, the loss doesn't end its own October hopes — the Astros still sit in the mix for an AL Wild Card spot and hold a one-game edge over Texas in the AL West, according to MLB.com's wild-card standings — but it was a costly one on a night the division race in the other league quietly tightened elsewhere.
What's next: Atlanta can clinch the NL East outright as soon as this weekend with a win combined with a Philadelphia loss, and the Braves close the regular season looking to lock up a higher seed before the postseason field is set. Houston, meanwhile, heads into its final stretch fighting to hold off Texas for the division and shore up its wild-card position.