Braves Today

Takeaways: Another Comeback win in AJ Smith-Shawver's First Start

For the fifth time in a row the Atlanta Braves rallied late to win a game, scoring 2 runs in the 8th inning on Friday night for a 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals.

Jake Mastroianni

For the fifth time in a row, the Atlanta Braves rallied late to win a game, scoring 2 runs in the 8th inning on Friday night for a 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals. 

The win also extends their winning streak to six games going back to their series win in Arizona. 

Atlanta's offense struggled for most of the night, but the pitching was able to keep them close to allow the comeback. 

AJ Smith-Shawver's first start

In the 20-year-old's first big league start on the mound and just his second big league appearance, he allowed just 2 unearned runs on 3 hits and 2 walks over 5.1 innings with 2 strikeouts. 

It wasn't a particularly dominating start as Smith-Shawver only had 2 strikeouts and just 6 whiffs on 37 swings (16%), but he didn't give up a lot of hard contact either. 

The Nationals only had 3 hard-hit balls against the young righty on 16 balls in play. 

While it was a really good first start, there is potential there for a lot more. 

Where did the offense go? 

The Braves were averaging nearly 8 runs a game in their 5 wins coming into Friday night, and they had just scored 13 runs on 19 hits the night before. 

But on Friday they had just 3 runs on 8 hits (all singles) and 4 walks. They were just 1-8 with runners in scoring positions and left nine on base. 

The Braves got to Nats' starter Josiah Gray for 5 runs back on April 1, but in the other 3 starts against the Braves over the last 2 seasons he's allowed just 2 runs in 16 innings. 

He's quickly becoming a pretty big thorn in the Braves' offense. 

Got a little help

On a night where the offense clearly didn't have it, they still found a way to get the job done - but they needed a little help from the Nats defense. 

In the eighth innings with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs, Ozzie Albies popped. 

Marcell Ozuna then hit a soft ground ball to first. Pinch-runner Sam Hilliard was going home on contact and should have been thrown out easily, but Nats' first baseman Dominic Smith bobbled the baseball and could only get the out at first. That allowed the Braves to tie the game. 

Orlando Arcia then hit a ball up the middle that Nats' shortstop CJ Abrams probably should have handled and got the out to end the inning, but he misplayed it and allowed the winning run to score. 

Whatever it takes right now, the Braves are getting it done. They'll try to continue the streak on Saturday as Jared Shuster matches up with MacKenzie Gore at 4:10 PM EST. 

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Jake Mastroianni
JAKE MASTROIANNI

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