Braves 6, Astros 3: Acuña's Grand Slam Drops Houston Out of First

Bases loaded, 96.9 on the inner half, and a 6-3 that moved two races

September 19, 2026 - Houston - Bryan Abreu came in with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh. He struck out Drake Baldwin. Then he threw a 1-0 fastball at 96.9 mph, and Ronald Acuña Jr. hit his fifth career grand slam over the left-center wall. The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 6-3 at Daikin Park. Houston dropped out of first in the American League West.

Roof closed. 73 degrees. First pitch 6:10 p.m. Attendance 41,147. The game lasted 2 hours, 41 minutes. Atlanta had 11 hits. Houston had 10 and still spent six innings in front.

"It's the best feeling ever when a guy is throwing 96 or 97 and you get it," Acuña said, per the MLB recap. "You don't feel anything."

Paredes had 2-0. Holmes kept it there long enough.

Isaac Paredes hit his 22nd in the first, a 356-foot fly to left. 1-0. He singled Jeremy Peña home in the third after Peña's triple. 2-0. That was Houston's night for a while. Jose Altuve went 3-for-4. Christian Walker had two hits. Yordan Alvarez singled. None of them scored until the eighth.

Grant Holmes threw six innings. Eight hits. Two earned. Zero walks. Four strikeouts. Eighty-seven pitches. He left down 2-1 after Matt Olson singled Baldwin home in the sixth and Acuña was thrown out at third. The lead was still Houston's. The inning that changed the week had not started.

Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Riley, and Sean Murphy reached in the seventh. AJ Blubaugh and Bennett Sousa could not finish the inning. Abreu inherited the bases loaded. Baldwin struck out. Acuña did not. 5-2. His 20th homer, 411 feet to left-center. The MLB recap said it was a 96.9 mph fastball in the top left of the zone, and that only 20 of 1,723 swings by a right-handed hitter against a right-hander on a pitch that hard in that spot had left the yard this year.

"I feel like every big situation that comes up, he's answering," Holmes said, per the MLB recap. "For him to turn it around like he has in the past month, it's pretty special. He's getting hot at the right time."

Yastrzemski's 11th, then Iglesias's 34th

Yastrzemski hit his 11th in the eighth, a 350-foot fly to left-center. 6-2. Yainer Diaz doubled Paredes home after Altuve reached. 6-3. Dylan Lee let that run in. Victor Mederos had already thrown a clean seventh. Raisel Iglesias threw a clean ninth for his 34th save. Fourteen pitches. One strikeout. Zero hits.

Holmes (10-5) got the win. Blubaugh (5-3) got the loss after 1/3 of an inning, two hits, three earned, and a walk. Hayden Wesneski had started and given one earned in 5 1/3. The seventh was the inning Houston will replay.

Acuña finished 2-for-3 with two walks, the slam, and four RBI. The MLB recap said he has six homers in 17 games this month and is hitting .373 with a 1.129 OPS over his last 21. Yastrzemski went 2-for-4 with two runs, the homer, and an RBI. Baldwin went 3-for-5 with a double. Olson had two hits and the RBI single. Paredes went 2-for-3 with the homer, a walk, two runs, and two RBI.

Manager Walt Weiss, per the MLB recap, had sat Acuña on August 26 against the Dodgers when he was hitting .228. Acuña worked in the cage that night, widened his stance, and has looked like the 2023 MVP version since. Two reconstructed ACLs and two hamstring strains this year are the other half of that sentence.

"If you have both knees reconstructed, it takes time, not only physically but mentally, to regain the confidence in really letting it fly," Weiss said, per that recap. "I think we're seeing that now with Ronald again."

Six up in the East, and Houston no longer alone in the West

Atlanta is 91-64. The MLB recap said the Braves sit six games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies with seven to play, and that any Atlanta win or Philadelphia loss the rest of the way clinches a seventh NL East title in nine seasons. Saturday was one of those wins.

Houston is 77-78. The ESPN recap said the loss dropped the Astros out of the AL West lead. Paredes had two extra-base nights in one card and still left Daikin Park looking at a 6-3. Seven games remain. First place is no longer theirs to hold overnight.

"Finally, I got my timing and everything," Acuña said, per the MLB recap. "I'm just having fun out there."

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Atlanta at 12 team fantasy points, sixth on the slate. Acuña had 10 hitting FP. Paredes had 10. Holmes had 12 pitching FP. Houston finished at minus-1.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*