Bats silenced as Atlanta Braves fall in shutout loss to Washington Nationals

The Atlanta Braves took control of the series against the Washington Nationals on Thursday and Friday with two road wins in a row. Then, Game 3 happened. Saturday night on national TV, the Braves decided they weren’t interesting in hitting, scoring, or basically doing anything that would help the team win a baseball game. I could be upset about the game, but frankly the Braves played so poorly at the plate it was just grudgingly boring. Julio Teheran tried to keep it close, but last time I checked you can’t win when your team scores zero. I’ll send off to NASA to have that checked out. The Braves just didn’t have the good bats, and lost the game, 3-0, in very lackluster fashion.

Teheran went 7 innings giving up 3 runs on 7 hits. He had 10 strikeouts and 2 walks, but I guarantee he would tell you that it wasn’t an excellent pitching day. Julio expects a lot out of himself, and he should as the de facto “Ace” on this team. The biggest problem for Teheran was two-out situations. In the 3rd inning with a runner on second, Teheran gave up a single to Anthony Rendon on a 2-0 count. That pitch didn’t need to be as good as it was, since Julio has the base open. However, Rendon got the better of him, and that turned out to be the winning run. The Nats would add on two more runs, another of them with two outs. By that point, though, the game was effectively over.

Atlanta’s hitters weren’t completely absent, but they really didn’t make much of an impact after the first inning. B.J. Upton and Freddie Freeman both singled in the first inning, but they were stranded despite the threat. The opening inning would feature 2 of the only 5 hits the Braves had all night. Tommy La Stella, Jason Heyward, and Justin Upton all went hitless, and no one on the roster had an extra base hit on the night. As a team, the Braves as a team went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, and not even the boys over at Enron could make those numbers look good. It was about as ugly of a hitting performance that you can have without getting no-hit, and while the Braves had chances, they served to raise the frustration level.

The Braves take on the Nationals again on Sunday afternoon for the final game in the four game series. Hopefully, they bring the bats with them this time.