Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros

· Major League Baseball

Atlanta Braves

91-64, 40-37 Away

Final
6 - 3

Houston Astros

77-78, 39-41 Home

Acuña grand slam leads Braves to 6-3 win, dropping Astros from AL West lead

Ronald Acuna Jr. impresses with massive 411-foot grand slam

Houston (77-78) fell one game behind Texas (78-77) and trails the Chicago White Sox (79-76) by two games for the last AL wild card. The Astros had held at least a share of the division lead each day since Aug. 25.

Atlanta assured its eighth playoff berth in nine seasons on Friday and is in position to clinch its first NL East title since 2023 on Sunday.

Trailing 2-1, Atlanta loaded the bases against AJ Blubaugh (5-3) and Acuña homered off Bryan Abreu for his second grand slam this season and the fifth of his big league career.

Acuña singled and walked twice in his first three plate appearances. He has homered in three of his last four games.

Mike Yastrzemski added a solo homer in the eighth inning.

Grant Holmes (10-5) allowed two runs and eight hits over six innings.

Yainer Diaz hit an RBI double in the eighth off Dylan Lee, who struck out pinch-hitter Nelson Velázquez to end the inning.

Raisel Iglesias pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 34th save in 37 chances.

Jose Altuve had three hits for Houston, while Isaac Paredes was 2 for 3 with a home run, walk and two RBI.

Christian Walker had two hits after entering the game hitless in his previous 23 at-bats.

Hayden Wesneski allowed one run on four hits over 5 1/3 innings.

Up next Astros RHP Hunter Brown (6-3, 3.43 ERA) and Braves LHP Martín Pérez (9-9, 3.07 ERA) start Sunday.

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Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Wade Jr. struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Smith grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Walker grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Iglesias relieved Lee
	9th Inning	Acuña Jr. grounded into double play, shortstop to second to first, Baldwin out at second.
	9th Inning	Baldwin singled to center.

Statistics

ATL		HOU
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
13	Ground Balls	13
4	Strikeouts	7
6	Runs Batted In	3
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
11	Hits	10
0	Stolen Bases	0
4	Walks	1
0	Catcher Interference	0
6	Runs	3
3	Ground Into Double Play	1
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
34	At Bats	35
2	Home Runs	1
1	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
16	Runners Left On Base	10
0	Triples	1
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	1
17	Fly Balls	15
0	Caught Stealing	0
156	Pitches	140
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	1
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	0
18	Total Bases	16
38	Plate Appearances	36
324.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
3	Extra Base Hits	3
5.9	Runs Created	4.5
.324	Batting Average	.286
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.529	Slugging Percentage	.457
.324	Secondary Average	.200
.395	On Base Percentage	.306
.924	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.763
0.8	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.9
6.1	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	4.7
43.0	Batter Rating	29.5
17.0	At Bats Per Home Run	35.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
4.11	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.89
.206	Isolated Power	.171
1.00	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.14
.105	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.028
.000	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.086
12.0	Runs Produced	6.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.6	Patience Ratio	0.5
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.3
94.3	MLB Rating	83.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0