Braves win 3-2 over Nationals with walk-off single

Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves played the Washington Nationals in a spring training matchup on Thursday evening. Since these games aren’t about wins and losses, I was watching to see which hitters are improving, and how our pitching continues to develop in the month of March.

Julio Teheran started the game for the Braves, and he went 3 solid innings giving up 4 hits and no runs. The WHIP is a bit high giving up over a hit an inning, with also one walk, but Julio managed to control the damage on the bases nicely. He also pitched very efficiently, throwing only 25 pitches in those 3 innings, 19 of them as strikes. He pounded the zone and made the Nats put the ball in play, which is exactly what the Braves are looking for in their starters.

After Teheran, Avilan, Kimbrel, and Walden all got an inning of work, and all of them gave up a single hit with no runs. Kimbrel looked especially sharp getting 3 outs in 6 pitches, and notching a strikeout. He didn’t miss the zone a single time. I know it’s only March, but that kid looks locked in already, and that’s fantastic for bullpen morale. Gearrin also got an inning of work, but even though he didn’t give up any runs, he walked a guy so he probably got shamed by the rest of the staff. Basically, everyone throwing the ball for the Braves looked great in this game, with the exception of Lay Batista who blew in the 9th inning. Batista gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk, sending the game tied to the bottom of the 9th.

Several players got in on the hit parade as the Braves tallied 9 hits in the game. Heyward, Gattis, CJ, Simmons, and Uggla all had hits for the starting lineup, while Justin, Freeman, and Uggla got on base with walks. I don’t think there is a single starter that’s seeing the ball poorly right now, and the stats bear that out (if you care about such things).

I think we all know spring stats are essentially meaningless, but I do like to see a strong on-base percentage for our hitters. The starter leading that category is (unsurprisingly) Freddie Freeman with a robust .588 OBP. Also, for those of you who are believers in Dan Uggla he’s currently at a .412 OBP which isn’t too shabby. However, the hero of the game was Braeden Schlehuber, who hit the game-winning single that knocked in Joey Terdoslavich.

Overall, the game was a steamroller until the last inning, but the Braves managed to pull it out of the fire. Keep an eye on Batista to see if he gets another shot later in training. The Braves play the Red Sox next on Friday.