Well that was a marathon. The Nationals sat through a rain delay at the beginning of this game as a system moved through the Atlanta area, just to be interrupted again in the seventh inning, this time for two hours. Similar to yesterday’s game, there was not much offense to speak of, but RBI singles by Nasim Nunez and Luis Garcia Jr. were all the Nats needed in this one as Foster Griffin and the bullpen delivered another brilliant performance. Griffin and company headed a huge effort as the Nats battled back to win the series in Atlanta and bring their record back to .500.

A few of you guys got on me last Friday so I’ll give credit where it’s due, the bullpen these past two games was magnificent. They must have caught my thoughts in Friday’s postgame article, but if that’s what it takes — I’ll gladly do it again. All jokes aside, the Nats’ bullpen did an unbelievable job yesterday, and did just the same today, as the Nationals held the best offense in baseball to one run over the last 18 innings of the series.

The Nationals, for the second time this week, have dropped a heartbreaking extra-innings game against a division rival. Just like Monday night, the Nats had numerous opportunities to put this game away and in the win column, but could not get the job done.

Interestingly enough, considering it was a hard loss, there were plenty of positives to hang our hats on tonight. Miles Mikolas did an excellent job with potentially a rotation spot on the line, tossing five scoreless innings. CJ Abrams was magnificent, coming up with a clutch homer in the eighth and a huge two-run triple in the tenth in front of a full contingent of his family and friends. The negatives? Same as usual. The Nationals’ bullpen just isn’t good at all, and the bottom of their batting order just might be worse.

The Nationals have got to be anxiously awaiting the day David Peterson retires. Besides one rocky start against Washington earlier this season, Peterson’s track record of terrorizing the Nationals has been a legacy he’s carried on over multiple seasons now.

Even in the midst of what’s been a brutal start to the season for Peterson, he found it in himself to toss five innings of one-run ball this afternoon to keep the Nats from bringing their record back above .500. In his own right, Cade Cavalli was awesome today, going a full seven innings of two-run ball today on just 84 pitches, in the latest of what’s been a strong stretch for him of late. At the end of the day, when you only allow the other team to score two runs, you should win the game, and the Nationals’ offense wasn’t able to make that happen today.