Braves outlast Washington with walk-off win in extras

The Atlanta Braves fought hard for their walk-off win in Thursday’s series finale with the Nationals. 

It was a fight to the end for the Atlanta Braves as they had to depend on late-inning heroics to claim their series victory over Washington.

This game was full of back and forth where the Braves would score and the Nationals would immediately answer back.

Not the kind of game I think many of us expected as the Nationals are a shell of who they used to be.

Let’s get into a quick recap of the action.

Recap

It was a decent but tough night for Huascar Ynoa as he was only able to complete five innings of work allowing 2 runs on 3 hits with 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.

The Atlanta offense did its best to try and give Ynoa the win as Stephen Vogt slugged his second homer of the night.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the bullpen just could not hold as the Nationals tied things up as soon as the Braves could take the lead.

Things were looking up by the time the eighth inning rolled around as Freddie Freeman launched a game-tying homer into the chophouse.

This was followed up by Adam Duvall hitting yet another home run that put Atlanta in front 6-5.

That home run was Duvall’s 34th of the season and a new career-high for the Braves slugger who has at least one extra-base hit in seven straight games.

However, I think you know where this is going, that didn’t last long.

Will Smith surrendered a lead-off triple off the bat of Lane Thomas.

Joc Pederson did his best to try and make an impressive catch to prevent the runner from reaching but the ball bounced off of his glove as he lept to try and catch the ball.

The Nationals would then tie the game on a ground out after Freddie Freeman was unable to handle a throw to first from Ozzie Albies.

Atlanta was unable to score in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and headed into extras.

Extra inning games have not been kind to the Braves as they were 3-7 in extras before this game.

Luckily for Braves fans, that wasn’t the case this time. With the bases loaded, Joc Pederson got a sort of retribution as he hit a game-winning single to left-field.

Impressive Notes

–Tyler Matzek made an impressive play in the seventh inning to keep the game tied as he kick saved a line drive and dove to toss the ball to home plate for the out.

-Stephen Vogt had an impressive and disappointing day. He managed his fourth career multi-homer game with two of them. This came after entering the day without an extra-base hit in 74 at-bats. Unfortunately for Vogt, he would have to exit the game after feeling a pop in his hip trying to make a throw to third base.

–Jorge Soler continues his impressive run as an Atlanta Brave. Soler absolutely launched a homer to center-field in the sixth inning. He has hit .286/.377/.549 including 10 homers, 19 RBI, and an OPS of .926 in 35 games he’s played since coming to Atlanta from KC.

-The bullpen was rough on Thursday but Jacob Webb was an unexpected bright spot as he’s done much better since being brought back up from Triple-A Gwinnett. He pitched a clean inning in extras and was rewarded with the win.

It was one of those games where each team was unwilling to let go of the lead so easily.

However, in the end, Atlanta came out on top which is what is most important.

They have now increased their lead to 3.5 games in the NL East as the Phillies lost to Colorado on Thursday.

The Marlins come to town next and Atlanta looks to try and pad their lead even more.

Let’s hope they can do it.