The Braves really have not seen the Washington Nationals for an extended period of time now. After tonight’s result, I’m positive the Nats didn’t send any welcome back cards to the opposing locker room. Atlanta’s lineup was clicking all night en route to a 10-3 win.
Game Summary
The starting pitchers were dealing early as both Fried and Irvin worked scoreless frames in the first and second inning. We got a bit of action in the third inning as Ronald Acuña Jr. started the inning off with a triple. Ozzie then put together an amazing 11-pitch AB that ended with a double, and earned Albies his 100th RBI on the season.
Riley followed with the third straight hit with a single up the middle; that pushed the Atlanta lead to 2-0. The hot hitting continued as Olson followed with a single to put runners on the corners with still nobody out. Ozuna followed with a should be double play ball, but Garcia threw the ball before he touched second base and the Nats only got one out while Atlanta scored another run.
Michael Harris II then followed with an RBI double to the opposite field with a 109.6 mph exit velocity. Travis d’Arnaud came up next and promptly produced his own hard-hit RBI hit to make it 5-0 Braves. Irvin was able to get Rosario to groundout, but his night ended after he walked Arcia with two outs in his nightmarish third inning.
Andres Machado came out the bullpen for Washington and immediately got a first-pitch squibber off the bat of Acuña to finally put an end to the top of the third. Max Fried did get bit in the bottom of the inning when Washington’s first hit came via an Alex Call solo HR just inside the left-field foul pole.
Fried did bounce back to get the next two batters and send the game to the fourth. That inning featured some good pitching on both sides. Atlanta got the offense rolling again in the top of the fifth; In that inning Arcia produced a run-scoring hit and Acuña swiped his 68th stolen base while pushing the lead to 6-1.
Fried got into quite the jam in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Nats had a couple singles and a walk to load the bases, but thankfully Max got CJ Abrams to groundout on a 3-2 pitch to avoid any damage.
Fried was fighting command towards the end of his night, but that didn’t stop him from finishing with a flourish with his strikeout of Ruiz. The top of the seventh saw the Braves tack on another run thanks to Ozzie’s RBI single.
Joe Jiménez was the first pitcher to come out the Atlanta bullpen. He looked good, recording one strikeout in his scoreless inning of work. The Braves finally hit their first home run on the night in the top of the eighth when Matt Olson extended his franchise record with his 53rd home run. Abbott was able to rebound from that solo homer and get through the inning with the deficit remaining 8-1.
Kirby Yates was next out the ‘pen for the Bravos and he had his splitter working as he picked up a couple strikeouts. Ozzie smashed his 32nd homer of the year to put the Braves run total into double digits.
Jackson Stephens came on to record the final three outs. Unfortunately this turned out to be a major adventure. Washington reeled off three hits, two walks, and two runs before Stephens was able to record the final out of the evening.
Pitchers of Record
W: ATL: Max Fried: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
L: WSH: Jake Irvin: 2.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Home Runs
ATL: Olson (53), Albies (32)
WSH: Call (8)
Braves Bullpen
Joe Jiménez: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Kirby Yates: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Jackson Stephens: 1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
Next Game
September 22nd, 2023 vs. WSH 7:05 PM EST