The Braves used the home run and late heroics to defeat the Nationals, 7-6, in 10 innings Thursday at Truist Park.
1. Are you not entertained? Joc Pederson hit a two-out RBI single as the Braves won a back-and-forth game and increased their division lead. The Braves, who took two of three from the Nationals, won and got a lot of help to increase their advantage in the National League East. Both the Phillies and Mets could not hold leads and lost. The Rockies defeated the Phillies, 4-3, and the Marlins defeated the Mets, 3-2. The division lead is 3-1/2 games over the Phillies and five games over the Mets.
2. Count them 1-2-3-4-5. The Braves used five solo home runs, including eighth-inning blasts from Freddie Freeman and Adam Duvall. After failing to score with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh inning of a tie game, the Braves found themselves trailing when the Nationals’ Luis Garcia homered in the eighth inning. No matter, Freeman and Duvall answered to give the Braves a 6-5 lead. For Duvall, it was his fourth straight game with a homer. The Braves couldn’t hold the advantage as the Nationals scored in the ninth after a lead-off triple by Lane Thomas off closer Will Smith. The triple came when Pederson couldn’t hold onto the ball after hitting the centerfield fence. Thomas scored when Josh Bell beat an off-the-mark throw to first base on a potential game-ending double play. “That’s what happens in the postseason,” Pederson said. “They score runs late and you get down and you can either crumble or you can fight. We showed we had some fight. A lot of great at-bats toward the end of the game. … That’s what it takes in October.”
3. Stephen Vogt hadn’t homered since July 11 – when he was a member of the Diamondbacks. The Braves backup catcher hadn’t had an extra-base hit in 75 at-bats with the Braves. So, why not blast two solo home runs? Vogt’s first came in the third inning after Nationals starter Erick Fedde retired the first seven batters, with four strikeouts. The second blast came in the fifth. It was his first multi-homer game since 2017. Jorge Soler added a solo home run on the first pitch of the sixth.
4. Vogt was forced to leave the game in the seventh inning as he was injured throwing to third base on a wild pitch from Luke Jackson. The Nationals tied the game at 4-4 when Thomas singled home Garcia after he doubled. Alcides Escobar reached on a fielder’s choice on an error charged to Ozzie Albies when he couldn’t handle a would-be double play grounder. Jackson then uncorked a pitch in the dirt. As both runners moved up, Vogt tried to throw to third and came up lame and left the game. The Braves escaped the jam with the help of a fine defensive play by reliever Tyler Matzek, who got a force out at home on a sharp comebacker that hit his foot. “He said his hip popped but I don’t know all that entails,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Vogt. “It didn’t sound real good. He was hurting pretty good, I know that.”
5. Huascar Ynoa was in line for the win after Vogt’s second home run came with pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza on-deck. Ynoa allowed two first-inning runs and kept the Nationals silent while the Braves mounted a comeback. The Nationals scored a run in the sixth, tying the game at 3-3, to prevent the win for Ynoa. In five innings, Ynoa allowed three hits, two earned runs with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Quotable
“Mind-numbing. Exhausting. Proud of the guys, man. They fought their rears off in the that game. The adversities. That was something.”— Brian Snitker
The numbers game
211: The Braves now have the most home runs in the National League, overtaking the Giants (208). The trail the Blue Jays (217) for the most in baseball.
Next game
The Braves open a three-game weekend series against the Marlins Friday night at Truist Park. The pitching matchup will be right-hander Ian Anderson (6-5, 3.61 ERA) for the Braves versus left-hander Trevor Rogers (7-6, 2.53) for the Marlins. The rest of the series will feature Charlie Morton (13-5, 3.47) vs. Eliseser Hernandez (1-1, 3.90) and Max Fried (11-7, 3.42) vs. Edward Cabrera (0-1, 7.11)
