A win’s a win! The Atlanta Braves didn’t exactly look like worldbeaters for long stretches of this game but they were able to keep the train on the tracks long enough for the Washington Nationals to eventually throw the game away. Atlanta came away from this one as 3-2 winners in extra innings.
At first glance, it seemed like the Braves were going to get off to a fast start and make this another rough night on the mound for MacKenzie Gore. After Chris Sale sat down the Nationals in order to start off the game, it took Michael Harris II all of two pitches to send one flying into the home bullpen for a leadoff dinger that put the Braves in front. Again, the obvious hope was that this would be just like one of those old nights from recent seasons where the Braves get off to a fast start and then hopefully cruise for the rest of the night.
That ended up not being the case. The Braves went down in order to end the first and it would be a long time until the Braves scored another run in this one. The theme for the night as far as the Braves were concerned was stranding runners in scoring position and the first instance of this came in the second inning when they squandered a leadoff single and a double from Ramón Laureano and Whit Merrifield, respectively. Sean Murphy lined out for the first out, Gio Urshela hit a grounder that Gore fielded and gunned down Laureano at home and then Orlando Arcia popped out to end the frame. The Nationals did lose Alex Call on the last pop out as he went down in a heap while coming in to cover Ildemaro Vargas on the play. It didn’t look good at all and Call ended up having to get carted off in an unfortunate scene.
The third inning was a key one as Chris Sale found himself in his first real bit of trouble on the night. Jacob Young hit a double with one out and then did something that he’s had a real knack for so far this season: Steal third base. With only one out on the board, this seemed like a very tricky situation for Sale but he was able to get out of it by getting Nasim Nuñez to hit a grounder back to the mound. Sale looked off Young at third, fired the ball off to first to get Nuñez and then Matt Olson fired the ball to home plate. Sean Murphy put on the tag and the double play was complete. I wish I could say that was the end of Washington’s scoring threat for the night but they were not done at all.
In fact, they ended up taking the lead in the fourth inning in incredibly frustrating circumstances if you’re a Braves fan. It all started with Juan Yepez reaching on soft contact and then Keibert Ruiz hitting a double after Jorge Soler gave everybody a reminder as to why he has been DH’ing for a while now. The double from Ruiz had a .020 xBA but Andrés Chaparro’s two-RBI double (for his second and third RBIs of the season) had an xBA of .730 and the Nationals had the lead out of nowhere — and all of this happened with two outs in the inning, to boot. Chris Sale was understandably frustrated with that result, Jorge Soler was frustrated with himself and apologized to Sale in the dugout and us fans were definitely annoyed since that was an inning that went sideways for no good reason.
Things stayed quiet for both teams until the sixth inning, which is when Marcell Ozuna tried to get things going with a leadoff single. That got wiped out when Matt Olson grounded into a double play. Ramón Laureano tried to get something going as he hit a single and stole second base but Whit Merrifield struck out and that was that for the Braves in the sixth.
That was also it for MacKenzie Gore, who had what was easily his best start since going 5.2 innings and only giving up one run against the Mets back on July 1. The Braves also managed to go his entire start without coaxing a walk out of Gore, which is the first time Gore made a start without walking anybody since — you guessed it — the last time he saw the Braves back on May 29. For reference’s sake, Gore went into this game with the sixth-highest walk percentage among pitchers with at least 120 innings under their belt this season, so needless to say this was a disappointing performance at the plate for the Braves while Gore was out there tonight.
Meanwhile, the Nationals found themselves with a chance to push another run across the board in the seventh inning. Jacob Young was on base once again and he had a friend with him on the basepaths after Nasim Nuñez followed up Young’s one-out single with a walk. Young then proceeded to attempt stealing third base again as Joey Gallo got struck out. Sean Murphy immediately fired the ball to third and Young was called out by the third base ump.
The Nationals challenged this and it appeared that Young had dodged the tag but MLB Replay disagreed and the Chris Sale had gotten out of the jam. This absolutely was not Sale’s best night on the mound and it was certainly frustrating to watch him struggle with the Nationals but ultimately, he held them to two runs while he was out there and the Braves were still in it by the time he was done. Sometimes you just need to keep your team in it and that’s what Chris Sale did tonight.
Atlanta’s offense finally showed some life once MacKenzie Gore left the game and Jacob Barnes entered. Gio Urshela smacked a double out to left with one out and then made it to third after Barnes uncorked a wild pitch. All it took was either a hit or a fly ball that was deep enough to bring Urshela home and Orlando Arcia delivered by hitting one deep into right field. Joey Gallo had to make the catch on the run and Gio Urshela scampered home to tie the game at two runs apiece.
Joe Jiménez entered the game in the eighth inning and pitched a clean inning despite giving up a one-out single to Juan Yepez. Yepez and Keibert Ruiz were wiped out in an inning-ending double play and that was as interesting as the regulation innings got in this one. Both teams went down in order from that point forward and the game went to extra innings — but not before Raisel Iglesias entered in the ninth, sat down the Nationals in order and ran his astonishing streak of retired batters in a row all the way up to 38 batters and 11 consecutive perfect innings.
Iglesias stayed out for the 10th inning and the streak sadly ended at 38 batters, as he hit Jacob Young with a pitch to start off extra innings. While Iglesias was in trouble for the first time in a long while, he still didn’t fold — he fought off pinch-hitter CJ Abrams and got him to hit into an infield fly and then he got Joey Gallo to ground into the fourth Nationals GIDP of the night to put the Braves in position to potentially win it in the 10th.
Gio Urshela led off the 10th with a ground ball that ended up being a productive out after Luke Williams made a very risky choice to take off for third on the crack of the bat. Orlando Arcia hit a liner right at José Tena to put the second out on the board and then the Nationals chose to go with Jose Ferrer in lieu of Eduardo Salazar in order to take on Michael Harris II.
In a normal world, Michael Harris II would’ve simply grounded out to CJ Abrams and this game would’ve moved on to the 11th inning. Instead, we live in this weird world where Abrams fielded the ball and uncorked a throw that was much too tricky for Juan Yepez to deal with at first base. Yepez hit the deck, Michael Harris II touched base safely and Luke Williams crossed home plate to give the Braves the walk-off win.
Was that a pretty game to watch? Absolutely not. It might have been low-scoring but Chris Sale wasn’t exactly at his best and the Braves basically played right into MacKenzie Gore’s hands for 99% of his start. Additionally, the Nationals played some sloppy baseball and it honestly would’ve been a crying shame had the Braves ended up losing this one. Instead, Washington’s sloppiness ended up costing them in the end and the Braves were able to get away with one. It was an ugly win but I think we’ll all take an ugly win over any type of loss seven days a week and twice on Sundays.
Atlanta’s now in position to pick up another crucial series win and here’s hoping that Charlie Morton can help push the Braves to a win tomorrow night starting at 7:20 P.M. E.T.