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Nationals Edge Braves in Extras 2-1

By John Buhler

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The Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals had themselves a good old-fashioned pitchers’ duel tonight. Unfortunately, the Nats edged the Braves 2-1 in extras tonight, winning in the bottom of the 11th inning on a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Ian Desmond.

-= Related: Braves Drop Opener to Nats 3-1 =-

Atlanta doesn’t believe in scoring runs for Shelby Miller.  Miller pitched fantastically tonight, going 7 innings of one run ball.  He allowed just 3 hits, walked just one batter and struck out 5 Washington Nationals hitters tonight.  Tonight’s start lowered Miller’s ERA on the season to 1.94.

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    • It’s beyond me how the Atlanta Braves cannot string together any kind of offense for this guy.  I mean he hasn’t won a game for the Braves since his near no-hit bid against the Marlins on May 17th.  If the Braves could score any runs for Miller, he might actually have contended for the NL Cy Young this year.  You can’t win it with only 5 victories.

    But it wasn’t going to come easy tonight anyway as the Nationals’ starter Ryan Zimmermann always seems to give the Braves trouble.  He too, was terrific on the mound tonight, going 8 shutout innings, allowing 6 hits and no walks while striking out 3 Atlanta Braves.  It was a shame that neither starter factored in the game’s decision tonight.

    Fortunately for Atlanta, the Braves were able to get a run across in the top of the ninth inning to send it to extras.  Kelly Johnson’s sacrifice fly double play scored Nick Markakis from third to tie it up at 1 and give Drew Storen his 2nd blown save of the year.

    The reason KJ got an RBI on this double play was that Joey Terdoslavich got thrown out at second base trying to tag up and advance from first.  Pretty dumb play for the rookie as Atlanta could have easily scored multiple runs in the top of the ninth inning.

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    It came down the eleventh inning when LHP reliever Dana Eveland struggled in his appearance tonight (0.1 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 IBB).  David Aardsma had to come in an relieve an ineffective Eveland in the bottom of the eleventh with the bases loaded and one out.  Though he got SS Ian Desmond to fly out to LF Eury Perez, it was certainly deep enough to plate Bryce Harper who easily tagged up and scored from third base.

    Atlanta misses Freddie Freeman in its lineup as the Braves have dropped the first two games to the Nationals this series.  The Braves have still yet to win a game in Washington this year.  Hopefully that comes to an end tomorrow afternoon when rookie RHP Matt Wisler takes the mound in the series finale.

    Next: Is Nick Markakis Ever Going To Hit A Braves' HR?

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