WASHINGTON – After one inning, the Braves lost starting pitcher Reynaldo López, which was an ominous start to a game in a time when they must win as many as possible.
The Braves’ response was impressive: They scored 12 runs, pitched a shutout and won by their largest margin of victory this season.
They hammered the Nationals, 12-0, on Tuesday at Nationals Park. With a Mets loss in Toronto, Atlanta is once again tied for the National League’s third wild-card spot.
Five observations:
1. Let’s be clear first: López is due for an MRI on Wednesday. The Braves will know more after that.
The initial feel, though, is that they avoided the worst.
López’s initial tests returned clean. He seemed to be in decent spirits. Manager Brian Snitker appeared optimistic.
One encouraging thing: López’s answer when asked if he could land on the injured list.
“No, I think we’re just going to take it day by day and see how everything goes,” he said through interpreter Franco García.
Again, maybe this means nothing. The 2024 Braves, after all, have had the worst injury luck. So cross your fingers.
López departed after an inning after his velocity was down and his stuff wasn’t as sharp. Snitker, catcher Sean Murphy and others noticed it.
“Yeah, it was a little frustrating, especially just given the circumstances,” López said. “The position the team’s in, every game counts, we’re fighting for every victory over there, so whenever I start a game, I want to go out there and be able to finish it. And not being able to do that was frustrating. I said I wanted to go back out, but obviously they made the decision to pull me, and I understand why they did that.”
At that point, the night could’ve spiraled.
Instead, three relievers helped the Braves tally their 15th shutout of the season. The bats made this game a blowout.
“It just goes to show what we’re made about,” said Jesse Chavez, who replaced López. “We’re made about being for each other, for the next one, for the one that came right behind us – whether it was the starter, the reliever before us or a position player that was in there before the game and we did a switch. We just want to be there for each other, that’s the biggest thing.”
2. When López departed, it seemed the Braves could be in trouble. They’ve struggled to score runs and have heavily relied on their rotation, so it appeared they might be in for an uphill battle.
How did the Braves respond after getting shut out for the 10th time this season on Monday?
By scoring at least 12 runs for the third time.
The Braves hung seven runs on Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore (only two were earned). They chased him on Ramón Laureano’s run-scoring single in the fourth inning.
The Braves really, really needed this after losing López.
“I don’t know if they sensed that or whatever,” Snitker said. “Gore’s been tough on us. We’ve had a hard time with him, he’s really good. So it was kind of nice to score some runs like that, especially under the circumstances with (López) coming out.”
The Braves started all of this with a four-run third inning. It began when Luke Williams reached on a one-out error. And with two outs, three of the next four Braves hit doubles that scored runs.
It went like this:
Jorge Soler run-scoring double.
Marcell Ozuna walk.
Matt Olson run-scoring double.
Laureano two-run double.
3. In this second half, Chavez has struggled at times – so much so that he’s become difficult to trust at certain times. He deserves his props for what he did on Tuesday, though.
With López gone, the Braves were at a disadvantage.
“Hopefully it’s nothing serious,” Chavez said of his thought at the time.
Then Chavez hurled three scoreless innings, which allowed his offense to build a seven-run lead. The right-hander gave up one hit and struck out three. This is exactly what Atlanta needed.
And the kudos we’re giving Chavez? Extend them to the rest of the bullpen.
After Chavez. John Brebbia hurled three scoreless frames. Luke Jackson finished the game by throwing two innings and preserving the shutout.
“We saw the mound visit in the first and the biggest thought was, ‘We really hope it’s not serious,’” Chavez said. “And then you get back to the fact of, all right, how can we get back there, how can I use my pitches efficiently? Because you don’t know how many (Snitker) is going to give us. We keep coming in and hopefully he says, ‘Hey, keep going.’ And that’s all want to do, is we want to make the innings as efficient as we can because we know what’s at stake here this time of year, with what’s going on inside of this game we had. But to be able to come in and pick him up – we get to watch a show every time he goes out, which is pretty nice.”
The Braves lost their starting pitcher in the first inning, but they didn’t need to deploy any of their top relievers.
“They saved the bullpen in a situation where it could’ve gone really sour,” Murphy said. “That was huge from them, just to eat those innings and get through it. And not give up any runs on top of it. But just getting those innings out of the way was important.”
4. After Monday’s loss and before Tuesday’s game, Snitker said something along these lines: The Braves are hoping one or two guys get hot for the next couple weeks.
This jumps out of the box score: Ozuna went 1-for-2 with a walk and Olson, batting right behind him, went 3-for-5 with a walk and two RBIs. Together, this duo can power the Braves.
But you also had Michael Harris II blasting two home runs – one coming off a position player. And Soler had the big hit.
The Braves will hope this performance can carry over to Wednesday.
“Hopefully it goes, one day,” Snitker said of the offense getting on a roll. “Hopefully they keep it going. We’ve had a bunch of team wins. That was one right there.”
5. The Mets and Braves are tied for the final wild-card spot.
The Mets play the Blue Jays on Wednesday. The Braves are at Nationals Park again.
Over the weekend, the Braves have four games against the Dodgers. The Mets play three in Philadelphia.
This should be quite the race.
Stat to know
28-16 - The Braves are 28-16 against left-handed starters this season, the third-best record in baseball after the Guardians and Dodgers.
Quotable
“I’m gonna be optimistic until we get news otherwise.” - Murphy on López’s upcoming MRI
Up next
Max Fried will start the second and final game of this short road trip. Right-hander Jake Irvin will pitch for the Nationals. First pitch is at 6:45 p.m.
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