So for only the eighth time this season, the Atlanta Braves have claimed a season series win over an opponent. The Washington Nationals have now joined the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Miami Marlins, New York Mets (lol), and St. Louis Cardinals in this season’s Hall of “getting beat by the 2025 Braves on a regular basis” Shame. Washington got there thanks to suffering a four-game sweep (with three games to go in this particular season series) as Atlanta’s
bats were active early and often over the course of four games in three days.
It’s an absolute oasis for us fans, as this is also only the second time all season that the Braves have gotten on a five-game winning streak. It’s far too little, too late for the Braves but for fans who have wanted to see this team show some actual life, it’s been a sight for sore eyes. Shoot, they’ve even gone one whole week without suffering a one-run loss — though I’m exaggerating a bit in that department even though it felt like this team was alternating between blowout losses and one-run losses all season. Still, this was an actual fun series to watch (for once) and this ought to be a nice one to look back on.
Monday, September 15
Braves 11, Nationals 3
Despite the fact that the Nationals got out to a relatively quick start in this one thanks to a go-ahead solo homer from Daylen Lile in the second inning, this ended up being all Braves once they eventually got a foothold in this one. Atlanta scored at least one run in five of the final six innings in this one, with two of those innings bringing two runs each and another pair of innings bringing three runs each. The two guys who were responsible for eight RBIs between them were Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson, with both of them ended up with four RBIs on the night and a dinger for both of them as well. Olson’s homer made it a 5-1 ballgame in the fifth and then Baldwin’s round-tripper was the shot that brought us to the eventual final score of 11-3.
While all of this damage was being done to Mitchell Parker and the rest of Washington’s pitching staff, 2025 Roberto Clemente Award nominee Spencer Strider had a lovely night on the mound. He pitched seven innings and struck out six batters and that homer from Daylen Lile ended up being the only run that Strider would surrender while he was out there. What’s more is that Strider appears to be figuring out how to get it done without leaning on his fastball all of the time, which is an encouraging sign that he’s really starting to adjust and come up with new ways of getting outs without trying to simply push heat past the batter. Hopefully he’ll continue to build upon that as the season comes to a close!
Tuesday, September 16 (Game 1)
Braves 6, Nationals 3
It sure seemed like the natural elements would play a role in delaying this contest but fortunately, both teams were able to get the game over with in a speedy two hours-and-25 minutes and as the excellent TV crew mentioned on Wednesday, the tarp would’ve come out had it gone two hours-and-35 minutes. Jose Suarez was tapped for starting pitching duty in this one and he responded by giving the Braves exactly what they needed with a nice long outing. Suarez went seven innings and only gave up two runs, which was absolutely vital considering how the second game of this doubleheader ended up going.
Meanwhile, the sleep paralysis demon who haunted Atlanta’s lineup throughout the entirety of the 2024 season was finally vanquished here in 2025. It sure seemed like this would be another game of frustration for the Braves against Jake Irvin as he got through the first three innings without too much of an issue. Then the fourth inning rolled around and the floodgates came open. Five of the six runs that the Braves scored in this one all came in the fourth inning as Atlanta turned a two-run deficit into a three-run lead in pretty short order. Jurickson Profar’s two-run dinger put Atlanta in front and then Matt Olson delivered yet another dinger in order to put the fifth run of the inning on the board.
From that point forward, Suarez clamped down on Washington’s lineup and the Nationals wouldn’t score again until the eighth inning, which is when Jorge Alfaro cashed in a triple from Daylen Lile with an RBI single of his own. However, all that did was get one run back from the Braves that they scored in the top of the eighth after Vidal Bruján drove in his second run of the day. Pierce Johnson and Raisel Iglesias finished the game off and made sure that both teams wouldn’t have to splash around in puddles in order to finish off the day portion of the Day/Night doubleheader.
Tuesday, September 16 (Game 2)
Braves 5, Nationals 0
With Chris Sale and MacKenzie Gore going head-to-head on the mound in this one, this game always seemed like the likeliest candidate to break out into a pitchers’ duel and sure enough, that’s what we got. Gore pitched into the sixth inning while only giving up two hits and three walks with no runs allowed. Chris Sale was even better, as he nearly went the distance and pitched eight innings of shutout ball. On top of that, he only gave up three hits, no walks and struck out nine batters. This was an absolutely brilliant performance from Chris Sale and they needed every one of the 106 pitches that he tossed on this particular night.
Washington’s bullpen kept the Braves quiet once Gore left the game and it got to the point where this game was actually scoreless heading into the tenth inning. However, the dam once again burst in spectacular fashion for the Nationals as Atlanta’s lineup finally came alive once extras rolled around — with Ronald Acuña Jr. making a crucial catch in order to push the game into extras.
For the second time on Tuesday, the Braves broke out for five runs in a single inning — Drake Baldwin delivered the breakthrough RBI double to cash in the Manfred Man and then that was eventually followed up with four straight Braves batters reaching base safely. The peak of that rally was Matt Olson golfing a curveball down the first base line for a bases-clearing triple that made it 4-0. Ozzie Albies brought home Olson with a sacrifice fly and the flurry of offense in the tenth ended up being far too much for the Nationals to overcome as Atlanta took the series win in dramatic fashion.
Wednesday, September 17
Braves 9, Nationals 4
Once again, this was a game that started off as if the Nationals were going to turn the tables on the Braves or at least keep up with them. Once again, the game ended up turning on a dime once Atlanta’s offense eventually woke up. Brad Lord pitched into the sixth inning for Washington and actually left with a 3-1 lead during that frame.
Once the dust settled and the Braves were done with Clayton Beeter, they were up 4-3 after yet another crooked-number inning in this series for Atlanta. Drake Baldwin’s RBI double got the Braves on the board and ran Lord from the game and then Beeter walked two batters to start his stint. The Braves made him pay for it after Marcell Ozuna shot one into right field for two-run, game-tying single and then Ha-Seong Kim scampered across home plate right before Ozuna got thrown out at third trying to make it there on a single from Nacho Alvarez Jr.
While the Braves were up, they were nowhere near done. Matt Olson homered in the seventh in order to make it five straight days (but not five straight games) with at least one home run from him and then Atlanta tacked on one more run in the eighth inning following an RBI double from Ozuna and then three more in the ninth after Ozzie Albies delivered a sacrifice fly and Ha-Seong Kim plated two with a single. The strong performance at the plate from Atlanta meant that Hurston Waldrep’s bounce-back day on the mound was a completely successful one as the Braves broke out the brooms at Nationals Park.
It’s always satisfying to pick up a four-game sweep no matter how any given season is going. For the Braves, this is their first four-game sweep since the Good Ol’ Days of June 2023 — that’s when the Rockies came to town and got absolutely dismantled while Atlanta was in the midst of winning 17 out of 18 games. Ah, the Good Ol’ Days.
Amazingly, this is the first time that the Braves have ever swept the Nationals over a four-game series and when I say ever, I’m including their history as the Montréal Expos as well. We just witnessed a pleasant bit of history with this four-game sweep and it’s the type of thing that makes sticking around to the bitter end worth it. Yeah, this has been a rough season for Atlanta but it could always be worse — the Nationals aren’t even eligible for the lottery!
Anyways, Matt Olson and Drake Baldwin were the clear stars of this series and Olson in particular has really started to heat up as the season comes to a close. In fact, the Braves pointed out that Olson now leads all big league first baseman in b(aseball-reference)WAR since the start of the 2022 season at 20.6. He’ll likely play hot potato with Freddie Freeman when it comes to that particular stat but it’s still pretty impressive to see Atlanta’s first baseman delivering at such a consistently excellent level as this season comes to a close. Again, it stinks that this is only happening in the midst of a lost season but hey, we’ve got to take the fun times any way we can get them at this point, right?
