Austin Riley's biggest swing of the season powers Braves to win

Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Austin Riley's biggest swing of the season powers Braves to crucial Game 1 win vs. Phillies

By Andrew Wright | Last updated Sep 29, 2026 5:28 PM ET

Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley had a severely disappointing performance in the 2026 regular season.

All of that has been forgotten, though, after Riley delivered his biggest swing in quite some time in Atlanta's 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the NL wild-card series between the NL East rivals.

Austin Riley played the hero in Game 1

With the Braves trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth, Riley stepped to the plate against dominant Phillies closer Jhoan Duran. Fresh off an at-bat in the sixth inning when he failed to get a runner in, Riley delivered what may have been his most important swing of the season.

Duran grooved a 100 mph pitch over the middle of the plate to Riley, and 385 feet later, Atlanta had a 5-3 lead over Philadelphia. The home run for Riley was just his fifth since Aug. 15, and it erased all bad memories of his horrendous regular-season production.

AUSTIN RILEY
GO-AHEAD THREE-RUN HOMER
ATLANTA IS GOING WILD pic.twitter.com/XrPQnazvVO
— MLB (@MLB) September 29, 2026

The Braves' last go-ahead HR in the 8th or later of a postseason game:

Austin Riley - off Jeff Hoffman - also with two out in the 8th inning of the last Phillies-Braves series: Game 2 of the 2023 NLDS
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) September 29, 2026

Atlanta now has a massive advantage in the series

Since the introduction of the best-of-three wild-card series in 2022, teams that have won Game 1 of the series have won 15 of 16 series overall. Eleven of the 16 wild-card series in the best-of-three format have resulted in sweeps, making a Game 1 victory even more important.

The lone team to fall in Game 1 and still win the series were the New York Yankees last season against the Boston Red Sox.

Riley's heroic swing shifted the Braves to the favor of history, and they'll now need to win just one of a possible two games to advance to the NLDS for the first time since the 2023 postseason.

Andrew Wright

Andrew "Dew" Wright graduated from Charleston Southern University with a degree in Communication Studies. He is a lifelong Chicago Cubs and Washington Commanders fan.

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