Reds Play Spoiler, Beat Braves and Deny Atlanta No. 1 NL Playoff Seed

The Cincinnati Reds played spoiler Thursday night, beating the Braves and clinching a series win while also preventing the Braves from earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NL playoffs.

They did it against a familiar face: starting pitcher Tyler Mahle , whom the Braves acquired at the trade deadline from the San Francisco Giants . He spent the first six seasons of his career with the Reds before the Minnesota Twins acquired him at the 2022 trade deadline.

Mahle has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since August, but his former team did not treat him kindly, as they hit two home runs off Mahle and allowed five earned runs on six hits. It was the most runs Mahle had allowed since joining the Braves, with the previous high being two earned runs.

Rookie outfielder Carlos Jorge led off the game with his first career home run deep into right field. Jorge has struggled in 15 games this season, hitting below .150. Thursday's home run was also his first career RBI.

Atlanta scored for the first time off two hits by Drake Baldwin and Ronald Acuna Jr. With first and third and no outs, Matt Olson flied out to right field to score Baldwin. Michael Harris II then lined one in the left-center field gap to score Acuña Jr.

Ozzie Albies bounced to first base and saw a big blunder by the Reds, as miscommunication between Sal Stewart and starter Brady Singer led to a first and third, one-out situation. Austin Riley then drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, giving the Braves a 4-1 lead after the first inning.

Matt McLain drove in a run on a single in the second inning, cutting the Braves' lead to two.

In the third inning, just one home run and one stolen base away from his first 30/30 season, Elly De La Cruz was served up a hanging splitter on a platter and hit a ball deep into right field traveling an estimated 402 feet.

With runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, Eugenio Suarez stepped to the plate and lined a single into left-center field. Both Tyler Stephenson and Sal Stewart scored to give the Reds a 5-4 lead in the third inning.

Austin Riley homered off Singer in the third inning to tie the game at five. Zach McCambley came in relief of Singer and allowed a single from Mike Yastrzemski , giving the Braves the lead again, 6-5.

Reds outfielder Hector Rodriguez, who is no stranger to long home runs when he gets ahold of one, gave the Reds a 7-6 lead with a bomb to right field. AJ Smith-Shawver threw a backdoor off-speed pitch down and away to Rodriguez, who got under it and golfed it over the chop house in right field for a 423-foot shot.

Connor Phillips , Tejay Antone , Brock Burke , and Emilio Pagan combined to shut out the Braves in the final four innings, sealing the victory and clinching the series win for Cincinnati.