Atlanta Braves breeze past Washington Nationals to even series

Coming off of last night’s game to forget, the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals met in game two of a three-game set on Tuesday night.

With Monday’s game against the Nationals going sideways, the Atlanta Braves were forced to change their pitching plans going into Tuesday night.

That change led to the major league debut of the Braves’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year last season, Bryce Elder.

Elder was a fifth-round pick of the Braves in the 2020 draft, and despite being just twenty-two years old, he looked good across seven and two-thirds innings pitched this spring.

After giving up back-to-back singles to open the game Elder settled in nicely and looked very comfortable through five innings, at one time setting down twelve National hitters in a row, while giving up just one run.

The Braves bats got going early and often on Wednesday posting back-to-back three-run innings in the second and third, chasing Patrick Corbin and grabbing a five-run lead heading into the fourth.

The Atlanta offense would add four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, highlighted by some Marcel Ozuna power and some Guillermo Heredia hustle, extending the lead to 10-1 through four innings.

Elder cruised through five innings before running into some trouble in the sixth.

After starting the sixth inning by retiring the first two hitters on ground balls, Juan Soto and Josh Bell tagged a couple of no doubt solo homeruns, cutting the lead to 11-3.  Yadiel Hernandez followed up with a double and that hit ended the evening for Bryce Elder.

Even though the sixth inning didn’t go as planned, Elder gave the Braves some much needed length, something that both Ian Anderson and Huascar Ynoa failed to do in the past two contests.

Darren O’Day and Jackson Stephens would cover the final three and a third innings giving up just one run and the Braves would cruise to a 16-4 victory.

This was a much needed win after last night’s debacle.  At the season’s end, no one will look back on this game as a pivotal game in the Braves’ season, but it was a big win for the Braves psyche after being throttled by the rebuilding Nationals on Monday.

With the win the Braves improve their record to 3-3 on the year and they will enter the finale of the homestand with a shot to finish it up with a winning record.

Tomorrow’s game is scheduled for 12:20 pm.  Max Fried is scheduled to go for the Braves and Josiah Gray will be on the hill for the Nationals.

After tomorrow’s game the Braves will hit the road for the first time this year as they head west for four games with the Padres and then three with Freddie Freeman and the Los Angeles Dodgers.