The Nationals were the talk of Major League Baseball yesterday, partially because their 3-2 victory over the New York Mets pushed them out of a playoff spot, but primarily because of the heroics of Jacob Young in the outfield. In case you haven’t seen it by now, Jacob Young made one of the greatest catches in baseball history yesterday, kicking the ball back up in the air to himself to secure the out.
He wasn’t done either, as he went up to the wall in the 9th inning and robbed a potential home run,
at minimum extra bases from Francisco Alvarez. Not to be forgotten in the midst of Young’s heroics is the job by Mitchell Parker to close out the game for the Nats, pitching 3 1/3 innings scoreless and earning his first career save.
The Nationals now head to Atlanta for their final road series of the year. The Braves come into this series on a heater, winning their last 8 straight, although it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme for them, as the most games they can win this season is 79. There aren’t many implications for the Nats over their final 6 games either as they’ve avoided losing 100 games, but also can’t match their 71-win total from 2023 and 2024. One story to watch for is James Wood closing in on the record for strikeouts in a single season, as he is now 8 Ks away from tying Mark Reynolds for the record, a record that you don’t want attached to your name.
Team Stats
Team OPS: .718 (13th in MLB)
Team OPS Leader: Matt Olson (.867)
Team HR Leader: Matt Olson (28)
Team ERA: 4.37 (22nd in MLB)
Team ERA Leader: Chris Sale (2.35)
Not much has changed for the Braves since they played the Nats 5 days ago. The sparknotes from the last preview, if you missed it, are that the newest faces in the Braves lineup are catcher Drake Baldwin, perhaps the NL Rookie of the Year favorite, and shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, who was waived by the Rays and picked up by Atlanta. They are also down some big thumpers in their lineup currently, with catcher Sean Murphy and third baseman Austin Riley out with injuries.
In the rotation, the Braves are missing a plethora of arms, with 4 rotation arms and 3 bullpen ones currently on the IL. They’ve struggled so much with pitcher injuries that they actually don’t have any pitchers who qualify for the ERA leaderboard, with Chris Sale getting the nod thanks to his pristine ERA, just in a shortened amount of innings. Hurston Waldrep has been a nice success story for them, but outside of him, very little has gone right on the pitching side for the Braves, with Spencer Strider not looking the same post-Tommy John Surgery and Bryce Elder regressing heavily.
Game One – Monday 7:15 PM EST
WSH: LHP MacKenzie Gore (5-14, 4.00 ERA)
ATL: LHP Chris Sale (5-5, 2.35 ERA)
Game Two – Tuesday 7:15 PM EST
WSH: RHP Brad Lord (5-8, 4.18 ERA)
ATL: RHP Hurston Waldrep (5-1, 3.04 ERA)
Game Three – Wednesday 12:15 PM EST
WSH: Andrew Alvarez (1-1, 2.84 ERA)
ATL: RHP Bryce Elder (8-10, 5.36 ERA)
MacKenzie Gore will make his 2nd to last start of the season tonight, once again against the Braves, who he held scoreless for 5 1/3 innings his last time out. Oddly enough, if Gore does not get the win in either of his final 2 starts, he will finish the season with fewer victories than Jorge Lopez, who was released by the Nationals in May and hasn’t pitched since. Brad Lord and Andrew Alvarez will both make their final starts of the season this series, and possibly their final starts for a while in the Curly Ws, as who’s to say how the rotation shakes out entering 2026.
The Nats will get their second look in the last week at Chris Sale and Hurston Waldrep, who both took care of business in their last starts against them. They’ll also get a shot against Bryce Elder, who went 7 innings, giving up just 1 run in his last start versus the Tigers. In a series with practically 0 implications, it would be nice to see the Nationals go out there and take a series that just embarrassed them in their home ballpark a week ago.
