The Braves’ Alex Wood and the Nationals’ Gio Gonzalez played a game of dueling strikeouts.
Wood won – going away.
The Braves left-hander struck out a career-high 12 to lead the Braves to an important 3-1 victory over the Nationals in a nationally televised game at Turner Field Sunday night. It was a much-needed win for the Braves who pulled to within 3-1/2 games of the Nationals in the National League East after winning two of three games in the series.
The Braves (60-57) had not won a series since taking three of four games from the Padres July 25-28. It was only the second win in the past 11 games for the Braves, who continued their dominance over the Nationals. The Braves have won nine of the 13 games between the teams this season and are 22-10 since over the past two years.
“Woody was the player of the game,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He made some key pitches when he had to. … We were going to try to take him as far as we could. We didn’t want to go with anybody else.”
Wood, the second-round draft pick out of Georgia, walked Jayson Werth to lead off the eight. He next struck out Adam LaRoche to set his career-high and was promptly replaced after throwing 124 pitches. David Carpenter entered and induced Ian Desmond to ground in to an inning-ending double play. Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 34th save.
It was the second 10-plus strikeout career game for Wood (8-9). He struck out 11 Marlins in an April 22nd start in which he lost 1-0 to Jose Fernandez despite allowing four hits and no walks in eight innings.
It was a second straight solid outing for Wood. He took the loss in his last start despite allowing just one earned run over six innings in a matchup with Mariners’ ace Felix Hernandez. He was also recently in a pitching duel with the Dodgers’ Zach Grienke.
“I thought I commanded all three (pitches) pretty well tonight of the most part,” Wood said. “My breaking ball was working pretty good and also my sinker was working pretty good too.”
Gonzalez (6-9), meanwhile, couldn’t get out of the fifth inning despite sending Braves batters back to the dugout via the strikeout. He fanned eight, including his first six outs of the game, and used the strikeout to get out of jams in the first and fourth innings.
He was not so fortunate in the fifth inning. He was pulled after giving up the go-ahead run on a costly mental error, allowing six hits and four walks while throwing 111 pitches.
The Braves struck out a total of 14 times against National pitchers.
Emilio Bonifacio led off the fifth inning with a bunt single that Gonzalez fielded and tried to flip between his legs to first base. Bonifacio advanced to third after a Tommy La Stella walk and Freddie Freeman hit into a double play. Jason Heyward then grounded to right side of the infield but Gonzalez was late in covering first. The mistake allowed Bonifacio to score.
The Nationals (63-53) scored first when Desmond led off the fourth inning with a home run to right-centerfield.
Justin Upton answered with a home run to left field to lead off the Braves’ half of the fourth. With one swing, Upton collected his 1,000th career hit and 500th career RBI.
“I knew after Desmond put that charge in the ball and hit that home run and we came in and answered right back, that’s when I got a little extra pep in my step and I really felt like we were going to pull it out,” Wood said. “And I felt like the control was kind of back on our side and back on my side as well. That was definitely a big home run by Justin. Jason fought one off and had a hustle play and beat it out to score that second run and sometimes that’s the way it goes. I’m glad it happened.”
Evan Gattis delivered a two-out pinch-hit single in the eighth inning to bring home an insurance run.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Upton said of his milestone hit, his 21st homer of the season. “Freddie Freeman decided that every single day he was going to remind me how close I was. I finally got it done tonight.”
The Braves will begin a four-game series with the first-place Dodgers Monday.
