July 17, 2022 – Nats 7, Braves 3

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/braves-vs-nationals/2022/07/17/662530#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=662530

 

Time: 2:54

Attendance: 26,043

 

It’s About Damn Time!

 

The home team heroes ended their 9-game losing streak in fine fashion, notching only their second victory in the month of July. They scored first for the first time in a week, putting up a 4-run bottom of the second off the normally-impressive Atlanta rookie starting pitcher Spencer Strider. Following a Josh Bell walk and two strikeouts, Austin Riley made a bad throw on Maikel Franco’s grounder, leaving runners on second and third. The light-hitting Ehire Adrianza singled them both home, and Victor Robles followed with only his second homer of the year to double the lead. The team then notched single insurance runs in the 4^th, 6^th, and 8^th, the latter on a long Juan Soto home run.

 

The Nats were forced to use a series of relief pitchers, as Tuesday night’s rainout meant that Josiah Gray’s start was pushed back to Wednesday, making him unavailable for Sunday’s game. That actually didn’t work out badly, starting with three scoreless frames from Erasmo Ramirez. Jordan Weems was hit hard in the 4^th, recording only one out while giving up all three Braves runs on a series of hard-hit balls. Steve Cishek came in to prevent further damage and put up a zero the next inning as well. Carl Edwards Jr. fanned the side in the 6^th, but ran into trouble an inning later: bases loaded, two outs, the dangerous Matt Olson up, and Nats-killer Riley looming on deck. After running the count full, Edwards Jr. elicited a huge cheer from the Washington segment of the crowd by inducing a soft grounder directly back to him. Andrés Machado and Kyle Finnegan each recorded a 1-2-3 inning to finish off the win.

 

The weather again was hot (it IS July in Washington, after all), and the afternoon’s humidity was oppressive, despite the cloudy skies. Traffic continued to be light on the drive down. We made an 11:30 reservation at Walter’s, and had a much happier experience than on our earlier visit.