3 takeaways: Atlanta Braves crushed by Nats, but Austin Riley delivers

There’s not a lot to be positive about after the Atlanta Braves were on the wrong end of a 14-4 beatdown at the hands of the NL East division rival Washington Nationals.

It certainly could have been worse, though, as the Atlanta Braves found themselves being no-hit by Washington starter Anibal Sanchez entering the sixth inning.

The Braves eventually tallied four runs – all on one big powerful swing of the bat of Austin Riley (yes, he homered AGAIN).

Wednesday night, however, was marred by a disastrous 8 ER start from Kevin Gausman, and further struggles in relief from the Braves’ bullpen arms Touki Toussaint (1 ER) and Dan Winkler (5 ER).

Simply put: this was the second most lopsided defeat for the Atlanta Braves this season – the 10-run deficit only outdone by the 11-run defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals on May 14th – though you could argue that this one was uglier.

Even worse is that it happened on a night that saw the Philadelphia Phillies win easily, moving the Braves from 1.5 games behind in the NL East race on Monday to now 3.5 games back, following a two-game sweep at the hands of the Nationals.

The happiest Braves news of the night had nothing to do with Wednesday’s 14-4 outcome at all, but rather the official team announcement that Atlanta’s SunTrust Park would be hosting the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the franchise’s first hosting of the Midsummer Classic since 2000.

As for Wednesday’s game itself? There’s more bad than good to take away from it, but here’s three things that stood out the most.