What’s the best way to make an annoying series loss to the 2026 New York Mets look like ancient history? Win a four-game series against a team that was over .500 coming into the series, why don’t you? Indeed, the Atlanta Braves are now riding a bit high following a very strong bounce-back series against the Washington Nationals and their high-powered offense.
Instead, the star of this show over the course of the four games was Atlanta’s high-powered offense as they were able to do damage against a very
vulnerable Washington pitching staff. Just how much damage did the Braves end up doing? Let’s get into it, folks!
Thursday, July 30
Braves 5, Nationals 4
After 3 1/2 innings, the Nationals were up 3-0 on the Braves. That is as good as it got for Washington in not just during this game but for the entire series as well. From the sixth inning onwards once the Braves were up 5-3, Atlanta was in near-complete control of this series.
The fourth inning saw Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a deep fly off of the scoreboard in the home bullpen in right-center to put the Braves on the board against Jake Irvin and for the next two innings, the offense came in waves. Mike Yastrzemski hit a big two-run dinger to tie the game in the fifth and then Atlanta ended up putting five runs on Jake Irvin’s line for the night after Ozzie Albies dropped one into the outfield for a two-RBI single that brought us to the aforementioned 5-3 scoreline. Considering the nightmares that this team has had on a near-regular basis against Jake Irvin, this was certainly lovely to witness.
Washington did get a run back in the seventh inning when Luis García Jr. added an RBI triple to what was a big three-hit night at the plate for him (that probably earned him a trip to the Bronx to wear pinstripes for the rest of the season) but outside of that, Washington was unable to do any big damage against the bullpen as Danny Young, Victor Mederos, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias brought the series-opening win on home for Atlanta on Andruw Jones Hall-of-Fame Bobblehead Night.
Friday, July 31
Braves 6, Nationals 2
From the words “Play Ball,” this was all Braves. Matt Olson smacked one out in the first inning for a solo shot to get Atlanta going and then Jim Jarvis came through and plated Mauricio Dubón with a liner up the middle to make it 2-0. CJ Abrams made it a one-run game in the fourth inning with a solo homer of his own but that was as close as Washington got after the Braves broke out for four runs in the sixth inning. The big shot in that frame was Michael Harris II hitting a laser directly into the Chop House for a three-run dinger that gave the Braves some valuable breathing room.
While this was going on, Bryce Elder did an admirable job when it came to keeping the Nationals quiet. He did have his moments but he was able to avert disaster for the monster part and he largely frustrated Washington while he was on the mound. The only runs that Washington were able to push across the plate were of the solo home run variety and once Andrés Chaparro hit the second homer of the night for the Nats in the ninth inning off of Elieser Hernández, it was too little and too late for the Nats and the Braves essentially cruised to victory in this one.
Saturday, August 1
Braves 8, Nationals 3
The big story in this game was that Martín Pérez was thrust into starting duty just 90 minutes before the game after it became clear that the IL-bound Reynaldo López wouldn’t be able to go due to some knee inflammation. Despite not having much time to prepare, that didn’t stop Pérez from being ready. Sure enough, Pérez ended up delivering his best start of the season where he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Brady House broke it up with a single but Pérez finished the inning in order to make it seven shutout innings with just that one hit allowed and six strikeouts. This was an absolutely incredible performance from Pérez when you consider the circumstances and the opposition.
Meanwhile, this was another case of Atlanta simply jumping on the Nationals early on and continuing to smother them. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson went back-to-back for homers in the first inning to get things going against Miles Mikolas and then Drake Baldwin made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the third. Dominic Smith had himself a big moment in the fourth as he led off that frame with a homer and at that point, the Braves were cruising.
The cruise turned into a nice little saunter across the beach in the seventh inning which is when Washington’s bullpen and suspect defense combined for a disastrous inning for the Nationals. The first two runs that the Braves scored came without them swinging the bat to do it — a bases-loaded walk for Dominic Smith made it 5-0 and then Eddy Yean’s first pitch upon entering the game was a wild pitch with the bases loaded that made it 6-0.
Austin Riley then hit one into the gap in left center that Jacob Young nearly made a diving catch on. Instead, he failed to keep it in his glove and two runs scored and we were in laugher territory at 8-0. Washington scored three in the eighth but that was nowhere near enough to keep up with the Braves who clinched the series win with this one.
Sunday, August 2
Braves 4, Nationals 2
Washington got to experience a lead in this series for the first time in what felt like ages for them, as Andrés Chaparro earned an RBI the hard way by taking a curveball to the head from JR Ritchie and then a sacrifice fly from James Wood put Washington up 2-1 in the fourth inning. Again, that’s as good as it got for the Nats as the Braves took control of the game starting from the bottom of the fourth inning.
Matt Olson led that fourth inning off with a game-tying solo shot and then some more poor defense from CJ Abrams (who put on a defensive disasterclass over the course of these four games) helped push the Braves in front in the fifth inning. You know it was bad when even the BravesVision commentary duo of Brandon Gaudin and C.J. Nitkowski were openly talking about how it’s probably time to move Abrams to second base. Between this and the Mets TV crew expressing concern for Connor Thomas when he was wearing a nasty beatdown in New York, it’s been a week of empathy for NL East commentary crews.
Anyways, a sacrifice fly from Mike Yastrzemski in the seventh inning brought us to the final score of 4-2 and that was ensured thanks to the bullpen once again coming into the game and throwing up zeroes. Dylan Dodd, Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias each picked up the baton and ran with it and once they crossed the finish line, the Braves had a broom in their hands and swept the Nationals out of town.
Now that’s more like it! The Braves essentially put Washington into selling mode on their own with their dominance in this series. The bats were able to do some real damage in this series, with Mike Yastrzemski in particular having a lot of success against Washington’s lineup during the three gamers where he played. Ronald Acuña Jr. also announced his return to Cobb County with a pair of dingers over the course of this series and the usual suspects like Matt Olson, Michael Harris II, and even Dominic Smith coming up big over the course of the series. The lineup appears to be clicking again (weak Nationals pitching staff or not) and that’s encouraging to see as we head into the crucial month of August.
Also, a lot of credit has to be given to the pitching staff for coming up huge as well. This is a Nationals offense that leads baseball in runs scored by a very comfortable margin and only trails the Dodgers by two points for the team lead in wRC+ heading into Sunday’s action. Atlanta held Washington to fewer than five runs in each of the four games, which has been a very tough task for nearly any pitching staff that’s come up against this lineup this season. The only thing I can compare this to is when the Yankees swept the Nationals in D.C. with a 5-3 win, a 4-2 win and then a 5-3 capper.
It also serves to set the record straight a bit after the Braves did keep the Nationals quiet in their last trip to Cobb County, only for that to be a bitterly disappointing series for Atlanta’s offense. This time, the bats came up huge over the course of these four games. Combine this nice run of form from Atlanta since the All-Star break with the Phillies falling back closer to the rest of the NL East pack and things are now feeling very good as far as the divisional race goes.
Whether or not this team has what it takes to make a deep run in October for the first time since 2021 will likely require some more trade deadline activity that’s also similar to what happened in 2021. Alex Anthopoulos has already bolstered the outfield depth with the addition of Lane Thomas from Kansas City and I think at this point, we’re all waiting on a starting pitcher (or two). As well as Atlanta’s rotation fared during this season against that imposing Nationals lineup, a lot of the overall success had to with the bullpen once again coming up huge.
Grant Holmes went 4.2 innings and gave up three runs. Bryce Elder essentially walked a tightrope for six innings against this lineup. Martín Pérez came up huge but he only did so on 90 minutes notice because Reynaldo López is now on the IL. J.R. Ritchie only went four innings, himself. The rotation absolutely needs to be addressed once the deadline comes and goes — otherwise, you’d have a safe bet on your hands when it comes to predicting that this season’s ride could end due to a starter not named Chris Sale getting lit up and the bullpen not having enough energy to pick up the slack once October comes around. Things are going well, sure, but they could potentially be better with some additions. We’ll see what happens tomorrow!
