In a must win game for Atlanta, second-year pitcher Alex Wood pitched one of his best games of his career. On a nationally televised game where the world is watching, the quirky left-hander pitched a gem going 7 1/3 innings allowing only one run while striking out a career-high twelve batters in route to a 3-1 victory over the Washington Nationals.
Even though the baseball season is still in the early days of August, this was as close to a must win game for Atlanta as there could be. Losing nine of their last ten games, the Braves needed to gain some momentum with a series win over the division leading Washington Nationals. It’s also a key victory considering the tough task this week as Atlanta faces the NL West division leading Los Angeles Dodgers and the AL West division leading Oakland A’s, who happen to be the best team in MLB.
Alex Wood made only one mistake in his 7 1/3 innings Sunday night and that was to Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond in the top of the fourth inning to give Washington a brief 1-0 lead.
Wood had enough run support from his lineup as Justin Upton tied the game at one in the fourth inning with a solo homerun, and Jason Heyward gave the Braves a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning with an infield single that piled on the misfortunes Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez has endured against the Braves in his career.
Justin Upton’s fourth inning homerun happened to be his 1,000th career hit and 500th career RBI. Upton joined great company as Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, and Adrian Beltre are the only active players to match that same feat before the age of 27. Check out Uptons milestone.
National’s starter Gio Gonzalez struggled against the Atlanta Braves once again. The left-hander is 0-6 in his last seven starts against the division rival Braves, while supporting a 5.53 ERA. Gonzalez is lucky the Braves offense is as lack-luster as it is because the Braves had multiple opportunities to blow the game open but were only able to scratch across two runs in Gonzalez’s time in the game. One of those runs scored because Gonzalez didn’t cover first on an infield single by Jason Heyward.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Braves were able to add an insurance run off the bat of pinch-hitter Evan Gattis. After a Chris Johnson walk and a Ramiro Pena single, Evan Gattis was able to fight off a breaking ball away that found grass in shallow right field that scored Chris Johnson from second base with two outs.
The 3-1 lead set the stage for closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth. This was Kimbrel’s third consecutive day of work but manager Fredi Gonzalez had no choice but to send his best weapon out of the bullpen to the mound to close out a series clinching win against the division leading Washington Nationals. Kimbrel struck out Braves fans public enemy number one Bryce Harper for the first out in the ninth inning. On the next four pitches Kimbrel was able to record the final two outs against Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa. This brought Craig Kimbrel’s save total to 34 which is second in the National League.