BRAVES vs. ASTROS- Official Full Game Highlights (September 20) - 2026 MLB Season

Hunter Brown on the mound for the Astros 6 and 3, 3.43 ERA in 18 starts, 49 walks, 110 strikeouts, like batting 216 against Hunter, who won his last start Tuesday against Kansas City, and he gave up a run over five innings, struck out 10 in that game. Second double-figure strikeout game of the year for Hunter Brown. He's given up two runs or fewer in four of his last five starts. Swing and a miss. Hunter picks up a strikeout of Acuna. That's the first strikeout of the day for Hunter. There's that new wrinkle you can see coming out of there quickly. Sharp bite down at 88 miles an hour. Well, underneath the swing of Acuna. One out and one on for Matt Olson, left-handed hitting first baseman. Got him. Olson down on a foul tip. Hunter comes back after being down 3-1 and strikes out the dangerous Matt Olson for the second out. So now Hunter will try to work around the error, first and second with two outs, and Brown will face his former teammate Mauricio Dubon. 2-2 pitch coming again. And that is a called third strike. Dubon down looking. Hunter Brown sets the tone early with three strikeouts in the first. And Martin Perez hoping to keep the momentum going. Got his 100th career victory last time out. C.J. now he'll go for number 101. And a lot of experience in this ballpark for Martin. 11 games, 10 starts, both regular season and postseason combined. 2.79 ERA here for Martin. You can see what he's done so far this season. It's been a great year, maybe even a career year by a couple of different metrics for the left. Trying to bunt for a hit. Perez will not be able to make the play. Altuve with his second bunt hit in as many nights. He has four hits now in the last two games as he bunts himself into first base and Jordan to second. Now leads the league in bunt hits from the fourth spot. Now Christian Walker will bat where the base is loaded. Walker's 20th plate appearance on the year where the base is filled more than any other Astro. Center field and Perez gets out of the jam. Hunter had faced the Braves every year. 23, 24, 25 and now 26. He's done okay against them in the ERA. Right around four against the Braves. 2-2 pitch is a wave. That was not a comfortable looking swing by Ozzie Albies. That is four strikeouts for Hunter all the out so far. So one on one out for Brewer Hicklin. Right handed hitting right fielder making his first appearance in this series. Swing and a miss. Hunter Brown beating him on a fastball. That is five outs and five strikeouts for Hunter. Keeps punching tickets. So Yastrzemski still at first for Ha-Sung Kim. Number nine hitter right handed hitting shortstop. His first appearance in this series. He's got six today through two innings. All the outs are punches for Hunter. He is rolling the diesel. Braves nothing. Astros nothing. Into the bottom of the second inning. 7-8-9 coming up for Houston. Starting with Cam Smith. A two to Smith. Check swing and a call. Third strike. And if you remember at his last start he did not have that pitch earlier. We had talked about it. It's such an important part of what Martin Perez does. The ability to throw that two seam fastball inside the right. He started as a ball and it comes back and catches the corner. Here's Bryce Matthews playing for the first time since he got hurt in Arlington. In the last game before the all-star break. Slow roller to short. Kim throws across. A much easier, cleaner 1-2-3 second for Martin Perez. Baldwin the only brave to reach second base. He's been there in scoring position twice now. Here's Matt Olson. Strikeout number seven for Hunter Brown as he gets Matt Olson for the second time. Good curveball from Hunter Brown. He's used that fastball effectively to set that pitch up and got the swing and miss for Matt Olson. Second walk of the game for Brown. And Dubon's going to be the batter. Dubon came up with two men on his last time up. It struck out looking. Called third strike second time. Brown has frozen Dubon looking with two runners on. And now it's the top of the order for the Astros beginning with Jeremy Pena who singled his last time up. Dubon diving stop. Up and across. Save. Both Pena reaches. Tony Mancellino on the phone. They're going to challenge. It looks like that ball was in his glove as Pena's hand brushed the glove of Olson as he went by. Yep, that's exactly what it looks like. It wasn't like Olson reached to tag him. It just happened to be his glove was in the right position when he received that ball. Now that is a great job by Rob Smith, Jimmy Leo down there making sure that the Braves have that look and translating that to Mancellino, to Weiss, and onto the field to get the out. Olson another look at this going. Over the rail and he leans over and makes a nice catch. He kind of slow played it but he had just enough room, C.J. Get that inspector gadget arm out. Good extension from Matt Olson as he pulls it in. And gives Martín Perez another one, two, three inning. There's two away and Brewer Hicklin is the batter. It's an 0-1 count with Brown on the mound. 32 to Hicklin and a called third strike. Nine strikeouts for Hunter Brown through four innings. Braves have hardly been able to touch him. We go to the bottom of the fourth, no score. Bottom of the fourth underway with José Altuve leading it off. Altuve smokes one to left field and it's over the line. Ties it to 16th home run of the year. Just snuck it over the line into the Landry's Crawford boxes and the Astros lead 1-0 just like that. Oh man, he had to go down and get this changeup down out of the zone. Scooped it and dropped it into the Crawford boxes. That only went 335 feet. Hunter has looked good today. He's allowed a couple of base runners in the first, a couple of base runners in the third, but able to strike out Mauricio Dubon to end both of those innings. And he'll face the top of the order for the third time, Drake Baldwin who's been on twice. And there it is, another ten strikeout performance for Hunter Brown. His third, his last five starts. Give Matt Olson an opportunity here with two outs and a runner on. Ground ball, Nick Allen, nice backhand play and that'll end the inning. Hunter Brown fired off as Nick Allen makes a play against his former team to save a run. Good play by Nick Allen, getting over there. Nice casual backhand play at the right foot. Matt Olson out by quite a bit. Good inning ending play. Pena is at first base. One out for Yordan who's 0-2 today. 2-2. And Alvarez pokes one in the shallow left center field. Racing in Yastrzemski, that's going to drop in front of him. And he kicks it for a moment but recovers quickly enough. Pena stops at second and Yordan on with a bloop single, now has a six-game hit streak. And Walt Weiss has made his way out of the Braves' dugout so this is going to be it for Perez. Victor Medeiros is going to come into this ballgame. Victor Medeiros coming into this game to make his 28th appearance, made his 27th appearance in last night's game, pitching to the bottom third of the Astros' order. Picked up a strikeout of Cam Smith. Here a little bit different situation. Bases loaded. And you've got Jose Altuve at the plate. Jose with a single and a home run has five hits in his last six at-bats. But he goes down swinging. The sweeper. And he chased it. Yeah, we only have one word for this, right? It's chase. But there seems like there should be another word for this level of chase. Like this was super-duper chase. Look how far off the plate that is. Now it's up to Yanir Diaz looking for a two-out hit. He has an infield single and a ground-out today. Grounds it towards Ozzie Albies. He's got it. Steps on second. Martin Perez might be buying Victor Medeiros something off the top shelf tonight. Brian King now on the pitch for Houston. Hasn't allowed a run in his last four appearances. Dubon, a high chopper that gets over the head of Paredes. Harris will hustle into third. Duby's going to get a double out of that thing. Ozzie Albies will bat. He'll turn around and hit right-handed. Albies has been a little bit better this year as a right-hand hitter than a left-hand hitter. Ozzie broken bat. Shadow right. It fell. It fell right in between Smith and Allen. Ozzie is left with a baton like he's in the Olympics. And it's one apiece here in Houston. I mean, he snapped that thing off right above the thumbs. That one died a hero. Middle infield will stay back. Paredes in on the grass at third for Mike Yastrzemski. Ozzie goes for second. This ball is hit high. This ball is hit deep. And, yes, Bay City. And all of a sudden, it is 4-1 Atlanta. Walt was really confident that Mike Yastrzemski was going to get a big hit against the lefty in this spot. He hasn't had a lot of opportunities and big smiles all the way around for Yaz as he goes left on left for this absolute bomb here against King. 92-mile-an-hour fastball. It was elevated. And Yaz hits it 373 feet. His second home run in as many days. And this game has completely been flipped. And the champagne is currently on ice in that Braves clubhouse. 4-1 Braves, bottom of the eighth inning. One down for Yiner Diaz. That's hit pretty well to right, sending Hicklin all the way back. He jumps, and it's gone. It's number 13 on the season. Yiner picking up a home run to right field. And the Astros back within two. It's now 4-2. One last Yiner bomb right here for the hometown faithful. That bomb going to the opposite field is going to cut that lead in half. Yiner with plenty of power takes a four-seam fastball below the zone, puts a charge into it, 377 to the opposite field. That was a tasty little Yiner bomb. Well, the Astros needed a spark, a little life, a little hope. And it's Yiner's turn. That's number 13 on the year, and it's 4-2 Braves. Atlanta just needs three outs to win the National League East. He struck him out on three pitches, one away in the bottom of the ninth. Swing and a miss. Struck out another. Matthews down on the cutter. And now just one out separates the Braves from the division title. He struck him out. The Leafs crowd is headed back home to Atlanta. The Braves win the division for the 19th time in 32 years.