Braves Wild Card Game Times, Results and Series History

Atlanta has played in baseball’s wild card round four times and holds a 2–2 record there. The 2026 edition was the Braves’ first postseason series win over Philadelphia in four attempts, and it was the only series in the round that year to need a deciding game.

2026 Braves wild card game times and scores

Atlanta’s games opened the round each day, in the earliest of the four time slots.

All three games were at Truist Park, because the higher seed hosts the entire round.

How the series went

Atlanta (94–68) won the NL East on September 20, its first division title since 2023 and its eighth postseason appearance in nine seasons, but it had the worst record of the three National League division winners and was therefore seeded third. That meant hosting the No. 6 seed Philadelphia Phillies (88–74), who had clinched a fifth consecutive postseason berth on the final day of the regular season.

Game 1 was tied 1–1 into the sixth before Atlanta went ahead, fell behind 3–2 in the seventh and won it with a three-run home run in the eighth. Game 2 stayed 1–1 until the seventh, when Atlanta scored twice; Philadelphia answered with back-to-back home runs in the eighth and won on a solo home run in the top of the tenth. That game ended on an automated ball-strike challenge that overturned a ball into a game-ending strikeout, the first postseason game to finish that way. Game 3 was decided early: a three-run home run in the first inning and a two-run home run in the fourth put Atlanta up 5–0.

Atlanta advanced to the Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Every Braves wild card appearance

Both Braves wins have come at Truist Park. The 2012 defeat was the club’s only appearance in the single-game format, and the 2024 defeat was its only trip to the round as a visiting team.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Wild Card Series” and “2026 National League Wild Card Series”; MLB.com, “How to watch the 2026 Wild Card Series on NBC and Peacock”.