Well, for those, myself included, who were hoping to see the Nationals’ offense take advantage of a bullpen game in the first of two today, we were sorely disappointed. The Nats allowed Jose Suarez, who likely wasn’t supposed to go more than 4-5 innings at most, to cover seven innings of two-run ball in just his fourth big league appearance on the season. What’s worse, he hadn’t gone more than 3.1 innings yet this season. In the longest outing he’s had since 2022, the southpaw not only completed seven innings, but racked up nine strikeouts in the process against a Nationals lineup that’s just been a total disaster against lefties this season.
This one started on a pretty promising note, Jake Irvin struck out five in his first two innings, and the Nats’ offense jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the second. Jacob Young delivered an RBI single to put the Nats up one, and CJ Abrams followed with a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 Washington lead.
That lead would last until the top of the fourth when this game was flipped on its head, and where we saw most of our action for the afternoon. The Braves got a run in on a groundout by Eli White to make it 2-1. Let me point out, that was the second out of the inning, all of this that followed came with Jake Irvin being a pitch away from ending the frame. Unfortunately that didn’t happen before Vidal Brujan tied the game on an RBI double, then Jurickson Profar gave Atlanta the lead with a two-run homer (which especially hurts considering his history with the Nationals), and Matt Olson tacked on a solo homer of his own, just for good measure. After all of that, the game was 5-2 in favor of the Braves, and did not change hands again.
Jake Irvin settled down and made it through six innings without any further damage, but Jose Suarez just had the Nats’ hitters completely guessing all afternoon. The last four innings of his outing went by with just one hit allowed, a single in the sixth by Dylan Crews.
- Jose Suarez: 7 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 2 walks, 9 strikeouts, 99 pitches
- Jake Irvin: 6 innings, 8 hits, 5 runs (5 earned), 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 102 pitches
The Braves got to Orlando Ribalta for a second straight day, getting a Vidal Brujan RBI single off of him in the eighth to make it 6-2. The biggest news for the Nats in this one occurred in the bottom of the eighth, as Daylen Lile‘s one-out triple marked his tenth of the season, setting a new Nationals’ rookie record for triples in a season. Oh, and he did it in 81 games, that’s half a season. The Nats cashed in on it too, as he scored on an RBI single by Jorge Alfaro to make it 6-3, a score that would hold until the end.
Positives this afternoon were once again scarce, PJ Poulin and Shinnosuke Ogasawara both tossed scoreless innings. Offensively, for the second consecutive game, Daylen Lile was the only National to record a multi-hit game. The team sure isn’t winning but this rookie is playing his tail off every chance he gets and I’m really happy to see him getting recognized for it.
The nightcap is supposed to get underway at 6:45 tonight, but it appears a rain system is currently threatening that so be on the lookout for alerts. The scheduled pitching matchup is one of dueling left-handed aces. Mackenzie Gore (5-14, 4.14 ERA) will get the ball, and if he wants to try and get his ERA back below four in time for seasons end, he’s gotta start now. He’ll be facing Chris Sale (5-5, 2.52 ERA) in what’s sure to be a really tough matchup for the Nats’ lineup, especially if they couldn’t figure out Jose Suarez. But that’s why you play the games, the Nats could just as easily come out tonight and get to Sale, you never know what can happen on a baseball field on any given day.
