The Red Sox were unable to punch their own ticket to the postseason on Sunday, as they fell to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 at Tropicana Field.
Fortunately, one of their former pitchers, the grandson of one of the greatest players to ever don a Red Sox uniform, and Boston’s original major league team did it for them.
With a 4-2 defeat of the Houston Astros late Sunday afternoon, the Atlanta Braves propelled the Red Sox to October.
Left-hander Martin Pérez, who pitched for the Red Sox from 2020-21, started for the Braves and held the Astros to one run.
But the biggest Boston-centric contribution came from Mike Yastrzemski, who gave the Braves an enduring lead with a three-run homer in the sixth.
Atlanta Braves’ Mike Yastrzemski (18) reacts after hitting a three-run home run off Houston Astros relief pitcher Bryan King during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
The final piece of this New England-centric puzzle was a game-ending strikeout of Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena. The Braves originally drafted him in the 39th round of the 2015 MLB draft out of Providence, Rhode Island’s Classic High School, before the Astros took him in the third round in 2018, out of the University of Maine.
The Red Sox watched the Braves from the visitors’ clubhouse at Tropicana Field, then donned “Clinched” t-shirts and goggles, and went back out to the field to celebrate and give the attendants time to seal the clubhouse in plastic wrap and wheel in the champagne and beer.
Long before the Red Sox played their inaugural season as one of the American League’s eight charter clubs in 1901, Boston had the Braves. The Braves were originally the Red Stockings, their name from their 1871 inception until 1876, when they were renamed the Red Caps until 1882.