September 26, 2022 – Braves 8, Nats 0

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/braves-vs-nationals/2022/09/26/662460#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=662460

 

Time: 2:24

Attendance: 24,684 (as has often been the case this season, a figure significantly greater than the actual number of fans that appeared to be in the park)

 

It was a little too cold for the lucky (short-sleeved) shirt. Switching seats didn’t help. The Nats suffered loss #100 for the season, and it wound up not being especially close.

 

The game moved along quickly for the first three innings, with each starter allowing only a single baserunner and getting outs on relatively few pitches. Cory Abbott finally blinked in the top of the 4^th, hitting Austin Riley with one out and then allowing a two-out, two-run homer to slumping Atlanta 1B Matt Olson. Marcell Ozuna led off the next inning with another blast to extend the lead. Things completely fell apart in the top of the 6^th, after Andres Machado replaced Abbott with two on and no one out. By the time the inning ended, the Braves had added 5 more runs, punctuated by a two-run homer by light-hitting infielder Orlando Arcia. Most of the damage would have been averted had not 1B Joey Meneses dropped the throw on what would have been a double play to end the inning.

 

For the past two months, the Braves have been using rookie Bryce Elder as the yo-yo of their pitching staff, calling him up to start a game or two against NL East weaklings Miami and Washington and then sending him back to AAA when their schedule got tougher. It’s hard to argue with the strategy; he’s given up just 2 runs in his past 4 starts covering 27.2 innings, culminating in this evening’s complete game shutout. Washington had a few scoring opportunities but failed to capitalize on any of them, ending a bases-loaded threat in the bottom of the 6^th when CJ Abrams was doubled off second base on Luke Voit’s line drive.

 

Traffic was relatively light in both directions. We arrived earlier than usual to take advantage of “Teddy’s Garage Sale”, where fans with a ticket to the game could fill one clear shopping bag with leftover promotional items for every $5 they donated to Nationals Philanthropies. We arrived at 4:50 and were able to start shopping about 45 minutes later. (The line was long when we arrived, and only got longer.) We didn’t get everything we might have wanted, but did fill four bags between the two of us by the time we finished.