Washington ends a two-year drought at the Braves’ Truist Park behind 16 scoreless innings from its rotation.
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It’s been nearly two years since the Washington Nationals have marched into Truist Park and exited the Atlanta Braves’ stadium with a series win.
But it’s been far longer since a Nationals team has played as well as this group has. They’ve embodied the underdog mentality. They like to ask, “Why not us?” when people question where their confidence comes from. And this weekend, they backed up that confidence by taking two out of three from the National League-leading Braves, including a tense 2-1 victory in Sunday’s rain-filled rubber match.
The Nationals were in every game and had a chance to walk away with the sweep, but the bullpen faltered in extra innings Friday. Washington (27-27) still walks away from the series back at .500 and with another confidence boost as the team heads north for three games against the Cleveland Guardians.
“We are just trying to prove everyone wrong,” reliever Orlando Ribalta said on the Nationals’ television broadcast Sunday. “We have a great team, we are very united as a group and we are trying to go out there and win every time and make sure we come out victorious like we did this series.”
For most of the season, the Nationals’ offense has led the way. That group did its job in Atlanta, albeit just enough. On Saturday, Dylan Crews and Jorbit Vivas homered. On Sunday, Nasim Nuñez gave Washington the lead with a fifth-inning RBI single. In the eighth, James Wood walked, stole second, advanced to third on a flyball from Curtis Mead and scored on a hit by Luis García Jr.
But this series win was possible because of a standout performance from the Nationals’ rotation, which put up a combined 16 scoreless innings against the second-highest-scoring offense in the majors. In Friday’s 5-4 extra-innings loss, Miles Mikolas followed an opener and scattered three hits across five innings. A day later, Jake Irvin threw five no-hit innings before leaving with an injury in a 2-0 win.
In the finale, Foster Griffin gave the Nationals six innings. He danced around the edges of the strike zone, his cutter especially lethal as he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth without any damage. The Braves finished with three hits and one walk against the left-hander, who struck out six.
“Everybody who took the ball this weekend, I couldn’t be happier with,” Manager Blake Butera told reporters. “They all did just an outstanding job from start to finish.”
It’s possible Griffin could have gone a batter or two into the seventh inning — he was at 90 pitches and has gone as high as 103 this season — but he didn’t get the chance, through no fault of his own.
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The game began more than 20 minutes late because of a threat of storms in the area. No precipitation fell during that delay, but the rain would arrive in the bottom of the fourth, with thunder making an appearance in the bottom of the sixth. Griffin rubbed his hands on his pants and reached for the rosin bag in between every pitch to try to maintain any semblance of a grip. Infielders planted their feet carefully on the soaked turf as they went after grounders.
The umpires attempted to keep the game going into the seventh, but it lasted just two pitches before the game was sent to a delay. By this point, the field was soaked through, making it difficult for the grounds crew to get the tarp on. The game resumed after 1 hour 28 minutes, with both pitchers now out of the game.
Andrew Alvarez replaced Griffin for the bottom of the seventh, throwing a scoreless frame and recording an out in the eighth. Gus Varland closed out the inning before the drama began in the ninth.
Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley led off with singles, and for the third day in a row, Richard Lovelady was sent to the mound. He got one out right away as Crews caught a flyball from Michael Harris II that wasn’t deep enough to tag up on. Eli White followed with a sharp grounder that Nuñez wasn’t able to field on the drenched dirt. One run scored on the error, and Lovelady then walked Ha-Seong Kim to load the bases.
That was enough for Lovelady. Butera replaced him with Ribalta, who two days earlier blew a save in the 10th inning. This time, though, the right-hander was sharp, striking out Chadwick Tromp and inducing a weak groundball from Ronald Acuña Jr. to secure the Nationals’ first series win in Atlanta since May 27-30, 2024.
“Luckily we had a lot of our good bullpen arms available today,” Butera said. “Trying to navigate that lineup is never easy, especially when there’s not really a pocket of same-handed batters in a row. I thought all of our guys came in and did a nice job.”
Note: Irvin was put on the 15-day injured list before Sunday’s game with a right shoulder strain. He attempted to warm up for the sixth inning Saturday before exiting with a trainer. He told reporters that the diagnosis was “best case scenario” and that he expects to resume throwing in a few days.
Reliever PJ Poulin was recalled from Class AAA Rochester as the corresponding move. Poulin, optioned May 16, was able to return after only eight days because he is replacing an injured player.
With an off day Thursday, the Nationals could skip Irvin’s spot in the rotation. Or Alvarez, who threw only 18 pitches Sunday and has started seven games at Rochester this year, could fill in.
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