Atlanta Braves Fall To Nationals 9-1

A Frenetic Fifth

After that shaky first and a leadoff walk in the second, Jenkins settled in and retired the next nine in a row before the walk demon appeared in the form of a  free pass to Nationals starter Tanner Roark leading off the home fifth.

Turner followed immediately with a single and suddenly there were two on with no one out.  A glimmer of hope came when Revere hit a sharp grounder that Chase d’Arnaud at third played off his chest to force.

Jenkins pitched too carefully to Harper and lost the strike zone walking him on four pitches to load the bases. He fell behind to Wilson Ramos 3-1 before the Nationals catcher lifted sacrifice fly to right – on what might have been ball four – scoring Turner and sending Revere to third.

Jenkins fell behind Anthony Rendon 2-0 then left his 29th pitch of the inning in the hitting zone For  Rendon to deposit in the left field seats. That three run homer gave the Nationals a 7-1 lead and ended Jenkins day after  84 pitches – 48 strikes – in 4 2/3 innings where he allowed seven runs on six hits walking three and striking out just one .

Madison Younginer got the call and was greeted by a Clint Robinson single to left but the eighth National to bat in the inning – Chris Heisey  – ended the Braves pain by lifting a fly ball to center for the third out.

The Rest of The Game

From that point forward the Braves offense didn’t have an answer for Roark. Freeman singled with 2 out in the sixth and Kemp walked but that was it.

Younginer pitched a quiet sixth and was replaced by Eric O’Flaherty to start the home seventh.  Revere welcomed EOF with a soft grounder between the mound and first base but O’Flaherty’s attempt to flip the ball quickly to Freeman ended up in the stand and Revere ended up on second.

The Braves left struck Harper out, but Ramos dumped an excuse me double into no mans land behind Freeman that scored Revere and increased the Nationals lead to 8-1.  O’Flaherty settled down and extricated himself and the Braves for the inning without further damage.

Braves Have No Answer

Oliver Perez replaced Roark to start the eighth. On the day Roark threw 99 pitches – 63 for strikes – in his seven innings pitched giving up one run on five hits striking out three and walking two.

His departure didn’t improve the Braves offense as Nationals pitchers continued to brush aside the Braves bats easily. Perez threw a, six-pitch 1-2-3 top of the eighth and the Braves sent Ryan Weber out to pitch the home half.

Chris Heisey greeted Weber with an anticlimactic line drive home run on the fifth pitch of the inning. Weber retired the next two batters and a nice running catch from Kemp with his back to the plate ended the inning.

Matt Belisle came in to pitch the ninth for Washington and walked Freeman but a well turned double play off a one-hop liner to Rendon erased him and  Markakis lifted a fly to left to tend the game.

Next: Good and . . .