Baseball teams play 162 games over six months. No regular-season game is supposed to be a big deal, least of all a game in April. But the recent history of the Braves and the Washington Nationals indicates that he who starts faster finishes first.
In 2012, the Nationals won six of their first eight meetings with the Braves and took the season series 10-8. Washington finished 98-64, winning the National League East by four games. In 2013, the Braves took six of the first nine meetings and won the season series 13-6. They finished 96-66, winning the division by 10 games.
In 2012, the teams didn’t face one another until May 25. Last year was different. The Braves swept the Nationals in D.C. on the season’s second weekend. By the end of April, the team widely tabbed to win it all — Davey Johnson, then Washington’s manager, had labeled the season “World Series or bust” — was 4 1/2 games in arrears. By swatting the Nats so hard so soon, the Braves ended a pennant chase before it started.
That’s why Sunday’s game in Washington was outsized. The Braves took the first two games of the series — one in extra innings, the other after the usual Ryan Zimmerman throwing error triggered the usual big inning — and getting swept at home for a second consecutive April would have done nothing to indicate that this year wouldn’t go like last year. But Washington won 2-1 on Sunday, quelling a second round of panic in our nation’s capital.
On Friday, the Nats descended on Turner Field for the first of another three-game set. First baseman Adam LaRoche, once a Brave, was asked if that Sunday game hadn’t felt bigger than just one of 162. “I think so,” he said. “You look at this series, and in a lot of ways what you do early sets the tone. You get some momentum.”
That’s pretty much how that sweep-averting victory worked. The Nats swept Miami this week while the Braves were losing two of three to the Mets, putting Washington two games ahead of the defending East champ. After a season of doubt and disappointment, the Nationals lost a early series 2-1, but were relieved it wasn’t worse.
“(Early success) helps when you play these guys down the line,” LaRoche said. “When you come from behind to win, you don’t remember it against teams that aren’t real good.”
The Braves are good. The Nationals should be, too. And if it weren’t for the counsel of a distinguished former teammate, LaRoche might not be a Nat. Chipper Jones, who’s both a hunting buddy and a best buddy, talked up Washington’s future to LaRoche when the latter was a free agent looking for a team. Chipper eyed the Nats’ young pitching — Stephen Strasburg being the biggest but not the only name — and told his pal, “Those guys are going to be really good soon.”
Said LaRoche, speaking of Jones: “He was a big part of it. He analyzes things. Over the years he’d seen the direction they were going. Sure enough, he was right on.”
(About the hunting: LaRoche and Chipper have shared many a deer stand, and LaRoche is likewise tight with the “Duck Dynasty” crew. Indeed, he sports a dynastic beard of his own. He’s the host of the “Buck Commander” show on the Outdoor Network. And now we return to our regularly scheduled baseball.)
LaRoche signed with the Nats in January 2011, but played in only 43 games before being lost to shoulder surgery. His 2012 season was a personal best — 33 homers, 100 RBIs — and was a key reason Washington won more games than any team in baseball. Last year was a lesser effort for both player and team. The new season has begun better for both.
Usually a slow starter, LaRoche was batting .344 with two homers and nine RBIs through nine games. Owing to the aforementioned Zimmerman’s throwing issues, there’s talk he might move from third base to first, but it will be hard to dislodge Ol’ Rochy — Bobby Cox’s nickname for LaRoche — the way he’s going.
No matter what happens this weekend, LaRoche knows it will be difficult to shake or rattle the Braves. “I don’t feel like we ever play these guys well,” he said. “Every game is a close game. I remember that game two years ago where we were up eight or nine runs and they won. Regardless of what we do, I always think it’s going to be a one-run game against them.”
Sure enough, Friday night’s game was a one-run affair, and the team that usually wins when these two meet won again. Having overriden a 4-0 deficit to claim a 6-5 lead, the Nationals watched as Justin Upton tied it with a booming homer off Tyler Clippard in the eighth and won it with a bloop single — that scored pinch-runner Jordan Schafer, who was running on the pitch, from first — in the 10th. The Braves are 3-1 against the Nats in 2014, two of the victories coming by one run.
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