Braves vs. Nationals Series Recap (8/16 – 8/18)

Game 1:  Braves 3,  Nationals 2 

Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Upton walked this one off in the bottom of the 10th to give the Braves yet another victory over the Nationals. Upton drilled his 23rd home run of the season over the fence in left-center field and the celebration began.  Interestingly enough, the Upton homer was the only RBI of the game for the Braves lineup, as the other 2 runs scored on double play balls from Freddie Freeman and Paul Janish.  Alex Wood had yet another wonderful start, pitching into the 7th and allowing only 1 run.  Wood struck out a career high 9 batters and didn’t walk anyone. Scott Downs pitched a perfect top of the 10th to earn the victory.  Now on to the fun part of the game.  Bryce Harper was hit twice by Atlanta pitchers continuing his HBP by Teheran last week.  The first time was a curve from Wood that didn’t look intentional, but the second time was a high and tight fastball to the back from Avilan.  Avilan said he didn’t hit him on purpose, but I have my doubts. Either way the Nationals bench was pretty hot and everyone knew there would probably be some retribution in the next game…….

Game 2:  Nationals 8,  Braves 7 

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

….. and there certainly was.  After Jason Heyward crushed his second lead-off homer in the last few games off Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg, Justin Upton took a fastball to the backside and smiled at Strasburg on his way down to first base.  Little did anyone know the game had not even begun to get weird.  It was a crazy 15-inning affair that saw the Braves come back from a 7-4 deficit in the 8th inning to tie it up and send it into extras, only to see the Nationals finally break through and take the game on an Adam LaRoche home run.  Neither starting pitcher made it out of the second inning, for different reasons, and the game ended with two starters on the mound (Medlen took the loss, Haren got the save).  Both teams used 22 of the 25 players available and lasted 5 and a half hours.  It was Stephen Strasburg turning into Rick Ankiel in the second inning and throwing 7 straight balls, the last two going behind the back of Andrelton Simmons, and getting ejected for it.  It was quite an odd scene to see the look on Strasburg’s face during the incident.  He was like a zombie, just a total blank stare and almost looked like he wanted to cry.  He definitely looked like he didn’t want to be on the mound for whatever reason.  Mike Minor, on the other hand, was just bad.  He only got 5 outs but gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks.  Jason Heyward had an epic game as he added to his lead-off bomb with the game tying 2 run homer in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs of Nats closer Rafeal Soriano.  To add to the madness, Andrelton Simmons also walked 3 times and the Braves hitters struck out 20 times.  Justin Upton went 0-6 with 5 Ks after his HBP in the first. All in all, it was a great game and could only have been better if the Braves could have pulled out the victory.

Game 3:  Braves AAA Team 2,  Nationals 1

YOU MAD BRO!  Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

The Braves started many reserves after the 15-inning marathon the night before.  Atlanta’s starting lineup consisted of Phillip Gooselin, Gerald Laird, Joey Terdoslavich and Paul Janish… AND THEY WON!  Freddie Freeman and Chris Johnson both had RBI singles in the 1st and the Braves pitching made that lead stand out for the rest of the game.  Julio Teheran didn’t pitch particularly well, but pitched himself out of plenty of jams and finished off 6 shut-out innings to earn his 10th victory of the season.  Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the 9th, including Bryce Harper to end it, and picked up his 39th save.  After Harper struck out he had some words with the third base umpire as he left the field and was also engaging some fans behind the dugout.  It was a perfect ending to yet another series win over the Nats.

The Braves stretched their NL East lead to 15.5 games over the Nationals and have won 12 of 16 games against them this season.  There is one more series left between the two teams in Washington in the middle of September.