Notes after Sunday's Braves win
Braves vs. Nationals: The Braves and Nationals today played their final game of this four-game series…The clubs meet for four games next weekend at Nationals Park to wrap up the season series…After splitting this series, the season series is also tied, at three games apiece…The Braves went 11-8 against the Nationals last year, winning the season set for the second consecutive season…From 2015-17, the Braves went 18-39 (.316) against their N.L. East rival.
Road Trip Finale: The Nationals wrapped up their 11-game, 10-day road trip today…Washington went 3-8 through Boston (3 games), Philadelphia (4) and Atlanta (4)…They face Tampa Bay at home tomorrow to open a six-game homestand…The Nats last game at home was on August 26 against the Phillies.
Eric Thames and Brock Holt: Thames singled to right field and drove in Holt to score the first run of the game for Washington in the top of the second…Prior to this series with Atlanta, Thames was hitting .195 (17-for-87) and Holt was just 3-for-40 (.075) on the season…In these four games versus Atlanta, to two hit .550 (11-for-20) with five runs scored, five RBI, and three doubles between and a walk.
Patrick Corbin: In his first start against Atlanta this season (13 career appearance/11 start), scattered nine hits over 5.1 innings while allowing five runs, four walks and a home run with six strikeouts on the day…After today’s start he is sporting a career ERA of 2.44 (19 ER/70.0 IP) against the Braves…Corbin snapped a streak of four consecutive games where a Washington starter did not complete at least 5.0 innings, which was tied for the longest such streak since the club moved to Washington in 2005…Nationals starters also did so in September, 2006.
Washington Starters: After holding the Phillies to six earned runs over 14.1 innings for an ERA of 3.77 in their last three games before this series, the starters for the Nationals surrendered 17 runs in 16.0 innings against the Braves for a 9.56 ERA of 9.56.
Sundays: The Braves moved to 7-1 on Sundays with today’s win, the best mark in the majors on the day…Atlanta won each of its first five Sunday games before losing to Philadelphia on August 23...The Braves have now won their last two...Atlanta went 18-9 on this day last season, tied for the second-best record in the NL and third best in the majors...In total, the Braves are 25-10 (.714) on Sundays over the last two seasons.
Big Week: Marcell Ozuna went 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and four RBI today, and in seven games this week he batted .464/.531/1.143…Ozuna logged 13 hits on the week, including four doubles and five home runs, driving in 13.
Josh Tomlin: Held the Nationals to just three hits and one run over 6.0 innings to earn his first win as a starter since October 1, 2017 while with Cleveland…Today was Tomlin’s first “quality” start since July 24, 2017, a span of 21 turns…He became just the sixth Braves pitcher to complete 6.0 innings this season, and today’s game was just the 10 individual time in 40 games that a Braves starter went 6.0 frames…Atlanta is now 8-2 in games where it’s starting pitcher completes 6.0 innings.
Tyler Flowers: Doubled down the right-field line to plate two runs in the fourth inning and give Atlanta a 2-1 lead…He finished the day 2-for-4 with a walk…The two RBI were the 300 and 301 of his career, and he is now one of just 15 active catchers with at least 300 runs driven in…Atlanta is now 11-2 (.833) in his starts this season...He made 73 starts last year and the Braves went 45-28 (.616) in those games, including 20-10 (.667) after the All-Star break.
Freddie Freeman Grand Slam, Again: Freeman drove a 2-2 pitch with the bases loaded out to left-center for his second career grand slam and his second of the series…He has now homered in two of his last three plate appearances with the bases loaded, after not doing so in each of his first 105 such plate appearances.