The Atlanta Braves took on the Washington Nationals tonight in a matchup that featured the top two scoring offenses in MLB thus far.
Dating back to 2018 when the Braves’ rebuild ended they have won seven of their last eight season sets against the Nationals going 80-49 in that timeframe.
With these two high powered offenses, one would assume that it would be a relatively offensive driven game. This was not the case. Bryce Elder took the mound for the Braves so it could be guessed that the Nationals
may be slowed down some, but the Nationals basically had an opener style game planned with a Richard Lovelady pitching only to be replaced early by Miles Mikolas and his 6.91 ERA. Fun fact about Lovelady. He pitched four games in Atlanta’s organization back in 2023 for Gwinnett.
Bryce Elder started off relatively strong in this game. He struck out rising star James Wood to lead off the game. He did give up a single in the first but that was the only baserunner. For the Braves half of the inning the Braves could not capitalize on a small spark. Ronald Acuña flied out, but then Mauricio Dubón doubled on the first pitch he saw. Matt Olson grounded out, but moved the runner over. Unfortunately, no run was scored when Ozzie Albies grounded out.
Elder continued to look good in the second. He picked up two groundouts and a strikeout of Jacob Young. Miles Mikolas came in to pitch in the second inning and it looked like the Braves may have been able to get another run. However, they had some poor luck on the base paths. Austin Riley singled but it appeared that a hit and run was in play on a Dominic Smith hard hit line out to RF that Dylan Crews was able to fire back to first for the double play to end the inning.
In the third inning it was more of the same for Elder. He allowed contact, but not much damage. He surrender a single to Nasim Nuñez who promptly stole second, but that was the only baserunner once again. The Braves were sat down in order by Mikolas in the third with a Kim strikeout, a hard hit fly ball by Sandy León, and a 103.6 MPH groundout from Acuña.
In another sign of deja vu, Bryce Elder had almost identical inning as before in the fourth. He gave up a single, followed by the hitter, Dylan Crews, stealing second. That was the only baserunner with Elder picking up a strikeout and inducing two groundouts. Mikolas continued to have the Braves’ number sitting down the heart of the order in order.
In the fifth inning, Elder finally changed things up a bit and allowed two base runners. Elder gave up a single, sat down the next hitters, then walked James Wood. Elder was able to take a deep breath, dig deep, and end the top of the fifth by inducing his sixth groundout of the game. The Braves came close to taking the lead the fifth. After a Harris groundout, Riley hit a single after the Nationals lost an ABS challenge. Smith struck out, but then Kim hit a shot to deep center, but Young made a jumping catch at the warning track to save the run and end the inning.
Elder finally showed weakness when Curtis Mead took him deep no doubter on a full count for the first run of the game. Elder settled down and sat down the next three hitters. It is moments like these where you can tell Elder is different. He does not seem to let mistakes get to him like he did in the past. In the bottom the sixth, red hot Mike Yastrzemski came in to pinch hit for Sandy León, but struck out. Acuña flied out, but Dubón picked up his second hit of the night. Olson hit into a flyout though that was about twenty feet short of a HR.
Didier Fuentes came in to pitch for Elder in the seventh. Elder finished his night giving up five hits, one walk, four strikeouts, and allowing one run on the solo shot. He lowered his season ERA to 1.97. Fuentes was a bit shaky. He got Young to fly out, but gave up a single to Millas. After another fly out James Wood hit a single after losing an ABS challenge. After a mound visit, Fuentes was able to gain his composure and strike out Luis García Jr. on three pitches.
The Braves were finally able to break through offensively in the seventh. After Mikolas was replaced with Mitchell Parker. Albies grounded out, but then Harris singled and Riley walked. Dominic Smith continued to cement himself as a fan favorite with another timely hit. This time it was a single that scored Michael Harris to tie the game at one. With runners on the corners and one out Ha-Seong Kim hit a perfectly placed bunt for a single to score Riley and take the lead.
The Braves could not score more this inning, but they took the lead with their elite bullpen ready to go. Robert Suarez came in to pitch the eighth inning, and he has been lights out this year. Well, that streak ended tonight. After inducing a ground out, Abrams took him deep to tie the game at two.
It looked like the Nationals may take the lead with Lile htting a single and stealing second, but fortunately Suarez was able to stop anymore damage before the top of the inning ended.
Clayton Beeter came in the game to pitch the eighth, and the Braves could not figure him out. Dubón and Olson both struck out and Albies grounded out. Raisel Iglesias pitched the ninth and struck out Millas on four pitches, followed by a routine fly out by Nuñez and a groundout to Wood.
The Braves had some of the hottest hitters of the night due up in the bottom of the ninth in Harris, Riley, and Smith. Gus Varland came in to pitch for Nationals in the ninth. Harris struck out on five pitches, but Riley stayed hot and singled on the first pitch he saw on a hard hit ball. The Braves then replaced Riley with Mateo as a pinch-runner showing they had no interest in going to extras. Dominic Smith lined out on a pitch that was up and away to make it two outs. Mateo then stole second for his sixth steal of the season with Kim up to bat. Kim could not play the hero again and grounded out to send the game into extra innings.
Dylan Lee came in for the tenth, as expected. Lee has easily been one of the most underrated pitchers in all of MLB this season. Unfortunately, the Braves’ elite bullpen had an off night. With the ghost runner on second, Lee walked the first hitter he faced to put two runners on. CJ Abrams then doubled to right scoring two and moved to third on the throw. Lee was able to stop anymore scoring, but tonight was easily his roughest outing of the season.
Orlando Ribalta came in to pitch the tenth. With Kim on second, the Tromp came to bat. Tromp came through and hit a single on an 0-2 count to score Kim and cut the lead to one run. Acuña then walked on five pitches and then Dubón had his third hit of the night to tie the game on a single that just made it past Abrams’ glove. Olson hit a fly ball that moved Acuña to third and Dubón moved to second on defensive indifference with one out. Ozzie Albies then walked to load the bases, leaving room for Michael Harris to be the hero. He almost did it on a long fall ball to RF, but then popped out to third leaving the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the tenth for Eli White who replaced Mateo, who replaced Riley. The gamble to replace Riley with Mateo came back to bite the Braves as Eli White grounded out to to end the inning.
Tyler Kinley, who has been shaky lately, got the nod for the eleventh inning. He struck out the first batter he faced on four pitches.He then got Millas to fly out, which moved ghost the runner to third.
In the eleventh Paxton Schultz came in to pitch to Dominic Smith with Eli White on second. Smith flied out to center, but it was not enough to move the runner. Kim then struck out, leaving it to Tromp once again being in a big spot. On a 2-2 count Tromp singled to center and the speedy Eli White scored to win the game.
Tromp is the fourth string catcher for the Braves. He was never supposed to be put in this spot, yet tonight he is the hero. Baseball is awesome. Braves play the Nationals again tomorrow in hopes of continuing their historic run of series won.
