A sweep! The Braves swept the Nationals!! Man, it was good to see a series where the Braves looked more like the Atlanta team that we are used to. The pitching was much better, they were good offensively through the entire lineup, even the pitchers spot, and the bullpen was able to come into the game with a lead and keep it.
Game One: Huascar Ynoa vs. Joe Ross, Braves won 6-1
What a game. If you weren’t a “fan” of Ynoa before this game, I can almost guarantee you are now! In this game, Ynoa’s performance on the mound was, once again, very impressive. He had great command over his pitch count and his balls to strikes ratio — pretty much everything we have come to expect out of him, he came through. The first four innings of the game was what looked like to be the making of a good old fashioned pitchers’ duel. That all changed when Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the fifth to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. After his homer, the Braves offense was just getting started. In the top of the sixth inning, after a line-out of Ozuna, my man, Ozzie Albies got on base with a one-out single. After his single, the Nationals went to their bullpen. Tanner Rainey was now on the mound for them. He started off great with a one pitch line-out of Austin Riley. However, things went downhill for him from there. With two outs, Dansby Swanson was intentionally walked, and then William Contreras had an RBI single to score Ozzie Albies and gave the Braves a 2-0 lead. After that, Christian Pache reached base on a walk. Two outs. Bases loaded. And Huascar Ynoa is at the plate. Can you guess what happened?!? On the second pitch he saw, Ynoa hit a GRAND SLAM to straight away center. A GRAND SLAM! Can you believe it?? Our pitcher hit a grand slam!! Honestly, I’m still in shock. That grand slam was his first career grand slam and his second home run in his very young career. Oh, not to mention his two homers have come in back to back games. He continued in the game for another two innings and only gave up one Nationals run on a RBI ground out to Kyle Schwarber. The Braves held on to win, 6-1!
Game Two: Max Fried vs. Eric Fedde, Braves won 5-3
Max Fried is finally back! And in this start he looked much more like the Max Fried we are accustomed to. He went five innings giving up only four hits and one run, and he struck out six Nationals hitters and only allowed one walk. Hopefully, Fried can keep this streak up.
The Braves bats are *finally* starting to come to life! In the top of the third inning, Contreras lead off with a single. Then after two straight outs, Acuña and Freeman both walked. Bases loaded, two outs. Marcell Ozuna was up to bat and he went long ball!! He hit a grand slam to right field to give the Braes a 4-0 lead early agains the Nationals again. Man, the Braves really have something working right now. That was their second grand slam in back to back games and the FOURTH one hit all season. William Contreras also got in on the home run fun in this game, when he hit his first career homer in the top of the fourth inning. It was a long solo-shot to center field to make it a 5-0 Braves lead. In the bottom of the fourth the Nationals scored one on a solo home run by Yan Gomes to make it a 5-1 game. That score remained until the bottom of the eight inning when Trea Turner hit a two run home run off of Josh Tomlin to make it a 5-3 game late. However, A.J. Minter came in to get the two remaining outs of the eighth inning, and he did his job without giving up another run. Will Smith came on to pitch the ninth inning for the Braves. He did his job perfectly. Three up, three down. He even got Juan Soto to ground out, which was nice to see considering Soto had a walk-off against him earlier in the season.
Game Three: Drew Smyly vs. John Lester, Braves
This was the start from Drew Smyly that all of Braves country, the Braves coaching staff, and I’m sure Smyly himself were all waiting for. He pitched six innings of four hit, one run ball. He also limited the walks in this game; he only had four, which is still quite a few but he had less than normal and he pitched more innings. He was doing so well, he actually made it into the seventh inning, but Snitker took him out after he walked the first batter he saw that inning. It made me mad that Snitker took him out. I mean, yeah he walked the first batter he faced that inning, but I think he was too quick to take him out of the game. He could at least let him stay in and at try and get through the inning. This seems to be Snitker’s MO right now, and it can be frustrating.
Anyways, the Braves won, and that’s all that really matters. The Braves did not hit a home run in this game but went back to a sense of “old school” baseball. They scored all three of their runs in the third inning. One on a RBI double by Marcell Ozuna that scored Acuña, and the other two came on a two-RBI single by Ehire Adrianza that scored my man, Ozzie and Ozuna. The Nationals scored one in the bottom of the fourth on a double by Kyle Schwarber that scored Josh Bell. They didn’t score another run until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Yan Gomes had a RBI single to make the game 3-2. The Braves bullpen held onto the lead, and the Braves completed the sweep of the Washington Nationals!
One thing to note about the third game of this series is: Freddie Freeman was not in the lineup. I’m sure Snitker was just giving him the day off to “regain himself” since he hasn’t been doing very well at the plate lately. He has also already made two errors this season which is unlike him. However, I’m sure he will be back to the good old MVP Freddie Freeman we have all gotten used too soon.
Braves Chop Chat 