{"id":890842,"date":"2026-09-10T19:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890842\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T19:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:20:16","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-denied-potential-playoff-clinch-as-atlanta-braves-win-behind-martin-perez-austin-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890842\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays denied potential playoff clinch as Atlanta Braves win behind Martin P\u00e9rez, Austin Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> were prevented from possibly becoming the first team to clinch a playoff berth when Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez threw seven scoreless innings and Austin Riley<\/a>\u2019s run-scoring single in the eighth inning gave Atlanta its first lead of the series in the Braves\u2019 3-1 win Thursday.<\/p>\n

Seeking its first division title since 2021, Tampa Bay (87-59) entered with a four-game AL East lead and would have clinched no worse than a wild card with a victory and a loss by Texas to Seattle or the Chicago White Sox<\/a> to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s hit came after pinch-hitter Ozzie Albies<\/a>\u2019 had his first triple of the season, a drive against Kevin Kelly<\/a> (6-4). Light-htting Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> tacked on a two-run single for the offensively struggling Braves that proved crucial when Victor Mesa Jr.<\/a> led off the ninth with a homer against Raisel Iglesias<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iglesias bounced back to get the final three outs for his 32nd save in 35 chances for the Braves, who began the day with a three-game NL East lead. <\/p>\n

Didier Fuentes<\/a> (6-2) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win, which sent the Braves into an important series against second-place Philadelphia with a big lift.<\/p>\n

The Braves, who had scored just three runs in a three-game losing streak and lost the previous two games to the Rays by a combined score of 14-3, were held to two hits in 6 1\/3 innings by Nick Martinez<\/a>. But the offense finally came to life in the eighth against the bullpen, stringing together five straight hits.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez turned in a stellar outing after escaping a major jam in the first. The Rays loaded the bases on three singles, but Chandler Simpson<\/a> hit into an inning-ending double play that began with a sharp grounder to first baseman Matt Olson<\/a>. He threw home for the force at the plate and catcher Drake Baldwin<\/a>\u2019s throw back to first just beat the speedy Simpson.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Rays: RH Drew Rasmussen<\/a> (14-5, 2.88) will take the mound for the opener of a three-game home series against the Houston Astros<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Braves: LH Chris Sale<\/a> (14-9, 2.10) gets the ball for the start of the big series against the Phillies. The Atlanta ace will face RH Aaron Nola<\/a> (6-10, 4.76).<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here <\/p>\n

Paul Newberry, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays were prevented from possibly becoming the first team to clinch a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-890842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}