Charlie Morton and the bullpen kept the Nationals to two runs en route to the team’s fourth straight series win
There was a point where Jake Irvin was really good, and in that span of starts, he stifled the Braves with two scoreless outings totaling 12 innings and a 14/4 K/BB ratio. These days, Jake Irvin is struggling, and while the Braves didn’t destroy him or anything, they did eventually get to him en route to another victory and their fourth consecutive series win.
Charlie Morton has had an erratic season to date, and with him coming off two good outings in a row, there was a definite possibility that he could stifle a depleted Washington team, as well as the alternative, where he could struggle against them once again this season. Early on, it looked like it was going to be the latter.
Morton breezed through the first, collecting two strikeouts in a perfect, 13-pitch frame. After another three-pitch out to start the second, he then had a hiccup, struggling to find the zone against Keibert Ruiz and eventually walking him, and then throwing a very meaty changeup that Jose Tena deposited into right-center for his first career homer, putting the Braves in a 2-0 hole.
The remainder of the game wasn’t copacetic for Morton, but he kept the Nationals off the board from that point on. There were two more singles in the second after Tena’s homer, but Morton escaped the jam by picking off Jacob Young at first base. A single, a steal, and a walk greeted him in the third, but two strikeouts and an easy lineout to right ended that frame. The fourth featured a bloop ground-rule double with one out, but two hard-hit outs (one too high, another beaten into the ground) and Morton was through four. The fifth started with yet more drama, as a hard-hit single and a bloop single put two on with none out. But, a 5-3 double play and a groundout meant the Braves headed into the fifth down by just those two runs, despite all the action on bases by Washington.
Meanwhile, the Braves were mostly just frustrated by Irvin. They got two on to start the bottom of the first via a single and a walk, but Marcell Ozuna hit into a double play, and after Irvin walked Olson, Travis d’Arnaud (returning to the lineup for the first time in six games) struck out. The Braves similarly did nothing with a leadoff single in the second, and Ozuna hit into a second consecutive double play after Whit Merrifield walked with one out in the third.
So, it took five innings, but the Braves did eventually get to Irvin in this one. With two outs and a 3-2 count in the fifth, Orlando Arcia got a very hang-y curveball and served it into the left-field corner for a solo shot. It was one of the weaker homers you’ll see this year — 93.4 mph off the bat — but it was placed right where its 363 feet of distance meant a run on the board, rather than a ho-hum fly out.
With the game now somewhat closer, it was time for the daily bullpen battle. Morton got two outs around a single in the sixth; he was removed with 95 pitches, two outs, and a runner on second for Aaron Bummer, who struck out Joey Gallo to preserve the one-run deficit. And then, the Braves actually broke through against Irvin for good.
Merrifield started the bottom of the sixth by lining a ball hard to right for a single. Ozuna followed by not grounding into a double play, but rather flaring a ball down the right-field line. The big guy tried to chug into second but was gunned out; Merrifield, as the tying run, made it to third. The Nationals then removed Irvin in favor of southpaw Robert Garcia.
Garcia faced Olson yesterday and threw him three fastballs in a row: two down the middle (taken, whiffed on) and then one up and in (whiffed on for a strikeout). He basically did the same thing again this time around: two down the middle (whiffed on, fouled off) and one up and in. This time, though, Olson was ready for that third one, and while he actually made pretty blah contact considering that he clearly guessed right (97 mph, 30 degree launch angle), the ball still carried and hit high off the bricks in right-center for a game-tying double. d’Arnaud followed with a 101 mph grounder up the middle to give the Braves the lead, scoring Olson from second.
After that, things got kind of silly. Ramon Laureano hit a routine double play ball, but C.J. Abrams, yesterday’s goat who delivered unto the Braves a walkoff win by throwing away a routine two-out grounder, straight-up booted it. The Braves then pinch-hit Jorge Soler to face Garcia, but the Nationals countered with Tanner Rainey, who rewarded the switcharoo with a strikeout. Gio Urshela followed with a soft bouncer down the third-base line that was snared on a dive by Tena, loading the bases, and Rainey struck out Arcia on a pitch way low and away (a pitch Arcia had taken twice in the PA to that point).
Dylan Lee cruised through the top of the seventh on ten pitches, with three boring flyouts. The Braves did nothing against Jose Ferrer in the eighth save a Merrifield single; it was Merrifield’s fourth time reaching base on the night. Grant Holmes came on for the eighth and scattered a couple of singles, but got out of it with a routine fly to center. (The Nationals really loved hitting generic fly balls in this game.)
The Braves added their fourth and final run of the game when Ramon Laureano took Joe La Sorsa deep in the eighth; the ball was absolutely crushed into left-center. Pitching with a two-run lead, Pierce Johnson had the breeziest ninth this side of Raisel Iglesias, throwing literally all of four pitches to get three outs.
Jake Irvin finished with a 3/3 K/BB ratio and a homer allowed in 5 1/3; the Braves didn’t light him up but definitely dealt him another poor outing. Charlie Morton was generally okay, with a 6/2 K/BB ratio and a homer allowed in 5 2/3; his turnaround from the horrible homerfest he was subjecting his teammates to essentially every other start appears to be progressing. Every Braves starter but for Jarred Kelenic (who was replaced by Soler, who was replaced by Adam Duvall) had at least one hit. The bullpen somehow pitched 3 1⁄3 innings with a 1/0 K/BB ratio — the “somehow” was the Nats’ predilection for piddly contact in this game.
With the series win in hand, the Braves will go for the sweep early tomorrow, with Reynaldo Lopez set to face off against DJ Herz.