HOUSTON — The Atlanta Braves held a subdued celebration Friday night when they clinched a berth in next month’s Major League Baseball playoffs after missing out in 2025.
Fair enough: Last year’s disappointment was an exception to the general rule for a franchise that is often on the field in October, and with more than a week left in the regular season, the Braves aren’t about to put their feet up and coast anyway.
Atlanta beat the Houston Astros, 6-2, to open a three-game series between division leaders at Daikin Park as the Braves punched their ticket to the postseason for the eighth time in nine years. They secured at least a wild-card berth in the National League playoffs and reduced their magic number to three for winning the NL East Division.
Afterward there was no wild celebration, but rather a simple toast with bubbly before they began looking ahead.
“We’ve got our eyes on bigger and better things,” Atlanta center fielder Michael Harris II said. “We’re trying to win the East. So got to go out there and do what we know we can do, and hopefully we can celebrate big for that.”