{"id":708880,"date":"2026-05-26T02:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/708880\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T02:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:45:16","slug":"walt-weiss-reveals-failed-atlanta-braves-plan-after-second-straight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/708880\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Weiss Reveals Failed Atlanta Braves Plan After Second Straight Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Braves<\/a> lost to the Washington Nationals<\/a> on Sunday, dropping the series and suffering their second straight defeat. Even with the setback, Atlanta is still having one of the best seasons in baseball and owns the top record in the National League at 36-18.<\/p>\n

Still, the series finale on Sunday felt like a game the Braves could have won. The offense went quiet in a 2-1 loss, but the turning point came in the sixth inning when the game went into a lengthy rain delay that last nearly two hours.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Right-hander Didier Fuentes<\/a> was on the mound when the delay began. He had entered in relief of starter Martin Perez<\/a> and recorded the final out in the top of the sixth. The plan was for Fuentes to cover multiple innings, but the weather changed everything and ruined Braves manager Walt Weiss’s plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWeiss said the plan was for Fuentes to throw multiple innings today. That’s why there was some hesitation to have him enter to begin the sixth. They knew the rain was coming. But once crew chief Ron Kulpa didn’t take the Braves grounds crew’s advice to delay the game at that point, they stuck with Fuentes, who obviously wasn’t able to return after the one-hour, 28-minute rain delay,\u201d reported Mark Bowman of MLB.com.<\/p>\n

Instead of getting multiple innings from Fuentes, the Braves were forced to pivot. After the delay, Fuentes could not return, and Atlanta turned to Reynaldo Lopez<\/a>. Lopez allowed one run across two innings, and that run ended up being the difference in the game. Had Fuentes been able to continue, the outcome may have looked different.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Fuentes has been excellent out of the bullpen this season in his second big-league year. Still only 20 years old, he is a starter, but Atlanta\u2019s deep rotation has pushed him into a long relief role. He has thrived in it. Through 12 appearances, he owns a 2.75 ERA, 3-0 record and 24 strikeouts in 19 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

The Braves believed Fuentes could keep the Nationals scoreless through the late innings, but the weather and the timing of the delay prevented that plan from unfolding. Fuentes will likely be one of the first names called this week out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n

Atlanta will now look to regroup on Tuesday. The Braves will head to Fenway Park to take on the struggling Boston Red Sox<\/a> for a three-game set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Braves lost to the Washington Nationals on Sunday, dropping the series and suffering their second straight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,48,192,25196,18167,370,4,6110,5171,35610,71],"class_list":["post-708880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baseball","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-braves","tag-didier-fuentes","tag-mark-bowman","tag-martin-perez","tag-mlb","tag-rain-delay","tag-reynaldo-lopez","tag-walt-weiss","tag-washington-nationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116638588855669054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}