Atlanta Braves Can’t Get Past Washington… or Turner
On a night in which the minor league season ends for all Braves’ teams, the Nationals come to Atlanta and continue to show us where the promised land is located.
Max Scherzer had just enough as the Atlanta Braves‘ bats repeatedly bent him, but couldn’t break him. John Gant, unfortunately, kept hanging pitches on bad counts and that just can’t be done with this Washington lineup. The result was another loss to the Nationals: the 15th in 17 tries this season.
Starter Gant gave up 2 runs in the first, 3 more in the second, and couldn’t finish that inning – yielding to Ryan Weber. Gant’s line was 1.2 / 6 / 5 / 5 / 3 / 0 / 1.
That “1” was a 2-run homer by Trea Turner, who the Braves almost literally cannot get out. Tonight he was 4 for 5 with 2 RBI from the leadoff spot and stole 2 bases just because he can. One of those was on a pitch-out. He’s now hitting .349 overall, but over .500 against Atlanta.
Weber performed admirably in relief: 4.2 innings while giving up just 1 run on 2 hits… and that run crossed after his departure.
Ian Krol and Chaz Roe also pitched very well – Roe K’ing the side in a one-frame outing. Shae Simmons wasn’t so fortunate. A double play supported him, but he couldn’t sustain the prosperity… but then Turner was involved, of course.
Bryce Harper was 0 for 4, Ryan Zimmerman 0 for 4, Wilson Ramos 0 for 4. That wasn’t enough.
7. 90. Final. 2. 17
Scherzer, for his part, went 7 innings, struck out “only” 8, but did scatter 7 hits and 2 walks while the Braves managed two runs in the process on separate RBIs by Tyler Flowers.
In the “What if” department, if a Dansby Swanson swat had eked through the middle in the 6th, another run might have scored; had almost anyone have a 2 out RBI hit, then runners might not have been stranded on second base.
However, if two early double plays hadn’t been turned on defense – thanks to Wilson Ramos – then the score might have been much worse against the Braves, too.
Or if we’d have an unemployed mob thug kneecap Trea Turner, then the Braves would have been right in the thick of the contest as he and Jayson Werth got 7 hits and scored 6 times.
We’ll wrap this and be back Saturday night with the debut of Josh Collmenter to hopefully fill some innings for the beleaguered Braves’ staff. He’ll match up against Gio Gonzalez in a rare Saturday day game: 1:05pm Eastern.