ATLANTA – Travis d’Arnaud hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning and the Atlanta Braves continued their postseason push with a 2-1 victory over the playoff-bound Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.

Reynaldo López came off the injured list and pitched six strong innings for the Braves, who were one game ahead of the New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks in the race for the final two wild-card spots in the National League.

The Mets lost 6-0 in Milwaukee, while the Diamondbacks were defeated 5-0 by San Diego.

D’Arnaud ended the game with a hit in the ninth, blasting a 2-0 throw from Sam Long (3-3) over the centerfield wall for his 15th home run of the season.

After an injury-plagued season, the Braves can secure their seventh consecutive playoff appearance on Sunday with a win against the Royals and another loss against the Diamondbacks.

Atlanta also has a doubleheader scheduled against the Mets on Monday after two games were wiped out by Hurricane Helene in the final week of the regular season, but that shouldn’t be a big deal for the Braves.

“It’s big here. This is playoff baseball in every sense of the word,” manager Brian Snitker said. “Lots of emotions. That’s why you play this thing, to get into these positions.”

Raisel Iglesias (6-2) secured the victory with a perfect top half of the ninth, but the story on the mound was López.

The All-Star right-hander threw a pitch for the first time since Sept. 10, when he lasted just one inning in Washington before exiting with shoulder soreness. An MRI showed no structural damage, but the Braves placed him on the 15-day disabled list in the heat of the playoff race to ensure things didn’t get worse.

López looked as good as ever in his comeback, allowing just two singles while striking out nine. After blasting Adam Frazier with the last of his 73 pitches, he batted contentedly with the glove as he left the mound, lowering his season ERA to an even 2.00.

That’s more than López could have ever imagined after signing with the Braves as a free agent last November. After three seasons spent primarily as a backup, Atlanta brought him back into the starting lineup and he was nothing short of stunning.

“It was a surprising season for me,” López said through a translator. “Not knowing what to really expect and taking full advantage of the opportunity that was presented to me, I simply couldn’t have expected a season like this. It was great.”

D’Arnaud provided the perfect end to the evening for the Braves.

“It’s great, especially when the victories are so big at the moment,” he said. “I think what our pitchers did is better than what I ended up doing because I wouldn’t have had this opportunity if our pitchers hadn’t kept us in the game like they did.”

Kansas City took the lead in the third after coming into the game with just two hits off Lopez – back-to-back singles by Freddy Fermin and Garrett Hampson. Fermin came home from third when Dairon Blanco scored a double.

The Braves tied the score in the fourth with an unearned run.

With two outs, Jorge Soler hit one from the yellow line at the top of the wall in right-center for a double. D’Arnaud followed with a dribbler that was tied up by pitcher Michael Lorenzon, who had plenty of time to catch the slow-moving catcher but threw it into the Braves dugout. Soler made the mistake clear.

The Royals entered with a makeshift lineup a day after their first postseason appearance since 2015.

Bobby Witt Jr. was among six starters from Friday’s 3-0 loss who had the night off, while three others were used at other positions. For Witt, it was the first game he missed all season after making 160 consecutive starts – 159 as a shortstop and one game as a designated hitter.

Sitting out had an added benefit for the Royals star, who likely secured the AL batting title with a .332 average with just one game left in the regular season.

Sixteen-game winner Seth Lugo pitched two scoreless innings for Kansas City, limited to 36 pitches, in what was essentially preparation for the Wild Card Series that begins Tuesday.

TRAINER ROOM

Royals: 1B Vinnie Pasquantino (broken right thumb) hopes to return to the lineup during the playoffs. He took another step in his recovery by facing live pitching for the first time since his injury. Before the game. He beat LH Will Smith, who is recovering from lower back spasms, and RH Steven Cruz, who was selected for the minors.

Braves: With López coming off the injured list, RHP John Brebbia was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett – merely a procedural move since the minor league team’s season is over.

NEXT

Neither team announced pitching plans for Sunday’s series finale. The Braves will go with either Chris Sale, Charlie Morton or rookie Spencer Rumpfenbach. The Royals, meanwhile, scrapped plans to use LHP Cole Ragans, preferring to retain him for the Wild Card Series.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb