Atlanta Braves: Dansby Swanson to the Rescue with Walk-off Home Run

It was not pretty and it did not look likely, but the Atlanta Braves come back to win with a walk-off against the Washington Nationals.

It’s funny how 20 minutes can make a difference. Just past 10:15 ET, the Atlanta Braves fans were calling Will Smith trash (are y’all crazy?) and saying this team has no chance this year.

While the latter part of that might be true, all dismay was erased when Dansby Swanson completed a 4 run 9th inning rally with a walk-off 2-run home run to give the Atlanta Braves the early season notch up on the rival Washington Nationals.

It was at times a tough game to watch as the Atlanta Braves, and Washington Nationals for that matter, left what seemed like the bases full every inning. Going into the ninth, the Atlanta Braves had left 13 runners on base and many of those were in scoring position.

They had the bases loaded with less than two outs in two separate innings and failed to capitalize.

However, not many people will remember that thanks in large part to the heroics of the 9th inning tonight.

It all started with a hit-by-pitch on Nick Markakis. Then Adam Duvall homered. That was followed by a Johan Camargo rip up the middle before Dansby painted the final strokes of this beautiful painting.

What makes this even more rewarding is this was the date Dansby Swanson was first called up in 2016. On his four year anniversary, he delivers with his first career walk-off home run.

Also, I can not lie, it makes it extremely rewarding doing this to the Nationals after that Juan Soto stare down in the top half of the ninth. Who got the last laugh now?

Let’s go back to Markakis though, I am as hard on him as anyone, but for the 2020 season, this guy has impressed me tremendously. He sat out for the first couple of weeks facing no game action, then rolled back into town and has done nothing but rope doubles down the line…and deliver that walk-off home run a few days ago as well.

I think we would be mistaken if we did not give a shout out to Huascar Ynoa, who came in and pitched great and really gave the Atlanta Braves bats a chance to do what they eventually did.

So far Ynoa has been another good pitcher coming out of the pen for the Atlanta Braves.

There does lie the lone problem that keeps rearing its ugly head. Tonight was yet another game that was poorly thrown by an Atlanta Braves starter. Tonight it was Touki Toussaint who could not make it through four innings before getting pulled.

Somehow, someome besides Max Fried has to figure it out and become a reliable arm the team can trust every fifth day.

The bullpen has been great, but at the rate they are being used, it’s hard not to see them regress even if it is just a little bit.

Let’s don’t worry about that tonight though. Let’s sit back and watch the replay of that ninth inning over and over and celebrate that the Atlanta Braves are solely back in first place in the divison.

Like we said earlier, funny how 20 minutes can change a ton of stuff, huh?