The Atlanta Braves welcome the American League West leading Houston Astros to town for three games as the regular season winds down.
This will be the first match-up of the two former National League West Division rivals this season and will mark the homecoming for Astros relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel, who returned to the Braves late in Spring Training and pitched in the minors until getting his call-up to the big leagues only to make one appearance before being unceremoniously let go by the organization.
Kimbrel latched on with the Texas Rangers but didn’t make it to be big leagues before the Astros came calling with a major league deal, allowing Kimbrel to go from one Texas team to the other. Coming into Thursday, Kimbrel had pitched in eight games for the Astros without allowing a run and had struck out 10 batters but he had also allowed four hits and six walks in six innings.
As for the Astros, they have lost sole possession of the lead in the AL West and are coming into Atlanta tied with the Seattle Mariners for first place and have the Rangers on their heels only two games behind. The Astros have had a stronger pitching staff that position player grouping most of the season with Hunter Brown leading the rotation – and slated to face the Braves on Sunday – and a strong core of high leverage relievers.
On the other side of the ball, shortstop Jeremy Peña has been the team’s best overall player but the offense has welcomed back Carlos Correa, who the team re-acquired at prior to the trade deadline, and Yordan Alverez who was activated from the 60-day IL at the end of August. Like Peña, Isaac Paredes was an All-Star this season and has the highest OPS on the team prior to Thursday night’s game.
This is a big series for Houston, who can’t afford to slip-up in the last two weeks of September as their hold on the division is tenuous and the AL Wild Card chase has tightened considerably.
For Atlanta, well, it is what it is at this point.
The Braves will head-out for their final road trip of the 2025 campaign after wrapping-up the Astros series.
Here are the start times for each of the upcoming games against the Astros.
- Friday, September 12 – 7:15 PM EDT
- Saturday, September 13 – 7:15 PM EDT
- Sunday, September 14 – 1:35 PM EDT
Broadcast options for these games include:
- Friday: FanDuel Sports Network South, FanDuel Sports Network Southeast, Gray TV
- Saturday: FanDuel Sports Network South, FanDuel Sports Network Southeast
- Sunday: FanDuel Sports Network South, FanDuel Sports Network Southeast
The Braves games can be heard on the Braves Radio Network. Games are also available to stream on MLB.tv (blackout restrictions apply) and the FanDuel Sports Network (restrictions apply).
