Nats Fall Again to Braves 6 to 2

Game two tonight in the important four-game series in Atlanta didn’t go as planned.

The Washington Nationals fell again to the Atlanta Braves 6 to 2.

Between an off night from ace pitcher Foster Griffin and a lack of hits with men on base, the Nationals lost their 2nd in a row to the Braves with 2 more games to go in the series.

The Nationals’ leading pitcher Foster Griffin started on the mound. He had an impressive 12-win 2- loss record with a 2.76 ERA.

Bryce Elder started for Atlanta. He currently has 6 wins and 6 losses with an ERA of 3.96.

Atlanta didn’t wait long to get on the scoreboard. In the bottom of the 1st, Matt Olson hit his 29th home run to right field, giving the Braves an early 1-0 lead.

They added to their lead in the next inning as Mauricio Dubon singled to center and was followed by another single off the bat of Austin Riley. Jim Jarvis then hit the 3rd single of the inning scoring Dubon. 2-0 Braves.

The Nationals got on the board in the top of the 4th off a home run from CJ Abrams, his 28th.

The Braves broke it open in the bottom of the 6th. Matt Olson led off the inning with a double to right. Ozzie Albies followed with a single sending Olsen to 3rd. Then Michael Harris hit a 3-run home run to right field, his 20th. Mauricio Dubon then singled to center. Joey Bart walked, sending Dubon to second. Jim Jarvis followed with his 2nd RBI single of the night to center scoring Dubon. 6-1 Atlanta.

It stayed that way until the top of the 9th when Andrew Chaparro homered to left field, his 6th. But that was all the Nats could do. Final score 6-2 Braves.

The Nationals had their chances leaving 2 men on base with just 1 out in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings. They just weren’t able to get that big hit. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Foster Griffin took his 1st loss since May 14th, giving up 9 hits and 6 runs in 5 1/3 innings.

Bryce Elder went 6 innings for the Braves giving up 4 hits and 1 run. Elieser Hernandez got the save with 3 innings of relief, surrendering 1 run on 5 hits.

The Nationals’ 2 home runs in the game gave them 50 for the month of July, a franchise record.

Game 3 tomorrow night at 7:15 ET in Atlanta, Georgia.

Nats Lose 3rd Straight to Braves 8-3

August 1st, 2026

Game 3 of 4 game series tonight between the Nationals and Braves.

Miles Mikolas started for the Nationals. He has a 3-7 record with a 5.65 ERA.

Martin Perez pitched for the Braves. Currently, he has a 6-6 record with a 3.49 ERA.

Atlanta started the scoring in the bottom of the 1st on back-to-back home runs from Ronald Acuna, his 9th, and Matt Olson, his 30th. 2-0 Atlanta. That made this Olson’s 5th 30-home run season. He has 10 home runs since July 1st, tied with CJ Abrams for the most in the Majors during that time period.

The Braves also scored in the bottom of the 2nd as Mike Yastremski doubled to left field and came around to score on Drake Baldwin’s single to left. 3-0 Atlanta.

They struck again in the bottom of the 4th as Dominic Smith homered to right field, his 8th. Atlanta 4 Washington 0.

No-hitter alert…Nationals hitless through 6 innings.

After 2 outs in the top of the 7th, Brady House broke up that no-hitter with a single to right field for the Nationals. Jacob Young followed with a walk. But Nasim Nunez lined out to deep left field to end the inning.

Miles Mikolas went 6 innings for the Nationals giving up 9 hits and 4 runs.

Riley Cornelio came in to pitch for Washington in the bottom of the 7th. His record for the year is 2 wins and 1 loss with a 5.59 ERA. He’s been called up from Triple A Rochester on 3 occasions this season.

Atlanta started off the bottom of the 7th with a walk to Drake Baldwin. Baldwin made it to second when CJ Abrams made an error on a grounder by Ronald Acuna, Baldwin to 2nd. Matt Olson then walked, loading the bases. After 2 outs, Dominic Smith drew a base on balls, scoring Baldwin. The Nationals then brought in Eddy Yean to pitch, replacing Cornelio. Yean promptly threw a wild pitch, allowing Acuna to score. Austin Riley then doubled to center field, scoring Smith and Olson. Score after 7 innings, Braves 8 Nationals 0.

The Nationals avoided the shutout in the top of the 8th. With 2 outs, James Wood walked and Andrews Chaparro was hit by a pitch. Dylan Crews doubled to right scoring Wood. CJ Abrams then singled to center scoring both Crews and Chaparro. 8-3 Braves.

And that’s how the game ended.

Martin Perez got the win for Atlanta going 7 innings giving up only 1 hit with 6 strikeouts.

The two teams finish their 4-game series tomorrow afternoon at 1:15 ET. Let’s see if we can get at least 1.

Braves Sweep the Nationals 4 to 2

August 2nd, 2026

The Washington Nationals couldn’t have picked a worse time to hit the skids, losing their 4th straight contest to the Atlanta Braves and 5th game in a row.

Cade Cavalli went 6 innings for the Nationals giving up 4 runs, only 2 of them earned, on 6 hits. Orlando Ribalta and Max Kranick both pitched an innings of scoreless relief.

JR Ritchie started for the Braves going 4 innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits with 4 strike outs.

Four different relievers finished up the game for Atlanta not allowing a hit and striking out a total of 7 Nationals.

The Braves scored in the bottom of the 3rd off of Mike Yastrzemski’s 8th home run. 1-0 Atlanta.

The Nats took the lead in the top of the 4th when Keibert Ruiz and Jose Tena both walked. Jorbit Vivas singled to center loading the bases. Andrews Chaparro then took a pitch to the face scoring Ruis. James Wood then sent Tena home on a sacrifice fly. 2-1 Washington.

That lead didn’t last long as Matt Olson smacked his 31st home run to right field. Olson homered in the last 3 games of the series. 2-2 tie.

Austin Riley doubled to right starting off the bottom of the 5th for the Braves. Riley scored on a throwing error by CJ Abrams on a ground ball off the bat of Jim Jarvis. 3-2 Atlanta.

The Braves tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the 7th as Mauricio Dubon singled to left field. Dubon later scored off a sacrifice fly to deep center courtesy of Mike Yastremski. 4-2 Braves.

As stated earlier, the Nationals went hitless over the last 5 innings managing only 2 walks.

This was the 1st four-game sweep of the year for the Braves, and it probably put an end to any Nationals’ playoff hopes. Yes, there are still 49 games left in the season, but the Nats now sit at 55 wins and 58 losses and 4.5 games out of a wild card slot.

Tomorrow the Nationals start a 4-game series in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park.

Dave’s Dime…What’s up with this Skubal Trade?

Many questions need to be answered after the surprising trade of Detroit’s Tarik Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers for 3 minor-league prospects.

This trade may not make much sense to most fans. The Dodgers already have one of the best starting pitcher rotations in the league with the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani.

We all know Skubal is a former 2-time Cy Young winner, but all the Dodgers had to give up were outfielder Zyhir Hope, and two right-handed pitchers, River Ryan and Brady Smith.

Hope is only 21 years-old and has yet to make it to the Major Leagues. He has had an impressive season this year with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers. Some MLB executives see him as a future rookie of the year candidate once he gets to the Major Leagues.

Ryan made 4 starts for the Dodgers in 2024 and then sat out the 2025 season after needing Tommy John surgery. He’s spent all this season with the Triple A Oklahoma City Comets. He has a record of 3 wins and 1 loss and a 4.46 ERA with 43 strikeouts in only 8 games.

Smith was playing this season with the Single-A Great Lakes Loons, located in Midland, Michigan. After being traded to the Tigers’ organization, he was reassigned to the West Michigan Whitecaps, a Single-A team in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In his 2 years in the minors, Smith’s record is 0 wins and 10 losses.

However, I can pretty much understand why the Tigers traded Skubal. He will become a free agent at the end of the year, and Detroit was having a disappointing season with little hope of earning a playoff spot. So, instead of having him sign with another team during the off-season, which he surely would have, the team figured to at least get a little something in return for trading him now.

But the Dodgers?

As of last Wednesday, MLB had the Dodgers ranked 7th out of all the teams pursuing Skubal. Out of all 7 teams even considered for the acquisition of Skubal, the Dodgers were rated as actually needing him least of all.

The team ranked number 1 in the Skubal sweepstakes was the Milwaukee Brewers. But as we know Milwaukee is a small market team and couldn’t afford to give up their minor league talent for just a rental player. No one believed that the Brewers could afford to sign Skubal to a long-term deal, so why trade away long-term prospects for a short-term player?

This all goes back to the fact that Major League Baseball does not have a salary cap. So, there are always going to be those teams who can afford to sign big-name players at the trading deadline and those who can’t or won’t. The Dodgers were already favored to win their 3rd World Series in a row without Skubal, and are now the prohibitive favorites to 3-peat.

I’ve mentioned before that the Major League Owners are considering a salary cap for next season, but the player’s union will never accept a hard salary cap, or so they claim.

It’ll be quite interesting to see how all this will play out and how long the players’ strike of 2027 will last.

Skubal to the Dodgers? I still can’t believe it, but I can sort of understand it.

These past few years I’ve actually been cheering for those Major League teams with the lowest

payrolls to have a successful season and maybe make the playoffs. I know that’s kind of silly, but I don’t care.

This years’ bottom 10 teams salary-wise are:

1.Cleveland Guardians – 62.28 million

2.Miami Marlins – 76.15 million

3.Chicago White Sox – 82.15 million

4.Washington Nationals – 83.94 million

5.Tampa Bay Rays – 88.74 million

6.Sacramento A’s – 89.84 million

7.Minnesota Twins – 96.54 million

8.Pittsburgh Pirates – 99.93 million

9.St. Louis Cardinals – 100.41 million

10.Colorado Rockies – 116.66 million

FYI, the Mets have the highest payroll at 352.22 million and the Dodgers are right behind with a payroll of 316.60 million. That’s a difference of almost 290 million dollars between the highest salaried team and the lowest. Wow…

Now if the season ended today, the White Sox would win the AL Central, and the Rays would win the AL East with Cleveland currently holding the 3rd Wild Card spot, but only by a half a game.

In the National League none of the 5 teams in the bottom 10 would qualify for the post-season.

So, go Rays! Go White Sox! Go Guardians!

Dave Carter

---

VIEWS

12.9k