The NL East is over. The Atlanta Braves clinched their seventh division title in nine years by completing a sweep of the Houston Astros. Tied at 1 in the sixth inning of Sunday’s series finale, outfielder Mike Yastrzemski gave the club the lead with a three-run home run to right field.
“This is what it’s all about,” Yastrzemski said of the celebration. “It’s so hard to win baseball games in general in the big leagues because everybody is so good. It’s obviously not the end goal, but these are the times that you need to celebrate because it’s hard to get here.”
Atlanta clinched a playoff berth on Friday night with a 6-2 win over the Astros. The team celebrated with a champagne toast, as their focus was on the division crown.
Utility man Mauricio Dubón said, “This is first step of what we want to accomplish. We are trying to enjoy this as much as we can. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s six months of preparation. I think Walt did a great job of bringing everybody together.”
The Braves are back in the postseason after finishing with a 76-86 record in 2025. Atlanta currently holds the third-best record in the National League at 92-64. The top two teams in the league will get a first-round bye in the playoffs.
First-year manager Walt Weiss explained, “ [I] just felt like they responded well to certain messages. I thought the way they competed was high-level stuff. I felt like the makeup of this team was really good. Coming off a tough year, I think a lot of it was getting them to believe that they were still really good.”
“I told these guys winning the division is really tough,” he added. “I know it’s the first step, but it takes six months to do it. It takes everybody, and we used everybody. Virtually everyone that got an opportunity stepped up and helped us win games this year. [It’s a] special group in that way, very close group.”
This marks the Braves 24th division title, tying the Los Angeles Dodgers for the most since the format began in 1969.