Also, the Braves are getting Spencer Strider back, so that’s cool.
Last week, the Atlanta Braves played the Washington Nationals over four games and things went pretty well for the Braves. Atlanta’s now over .500 and playing the Nationals once again — this time for three games and in Washington D.C.
As it turns out, the Braves are going to be facing a Nationals team that’s riding pretty high. While the Braves were busy battling the Red Sox in Boston, the Nationals got to face off against their underwhelming rivals across the Beltway in Baltimore. The Nationals actually came away from that series in Camden Yards with the brooms out, as Washington extended Baltimore’s misery. Aside from a close 4-3 win on Friday, Washington was in complete control of that series as they won 10-6 on Saturday and then pulled off the sweep with a 10-4 win on Sunday.
The final two games of that series saw the Nationals jump out to big early leads — they scored six runs in the first inning on Saturday and then put up 7 runs over the first two innings on Sunday. You’ll be “shocked” to learn that CJ Abrams was involved — he’s now tied for the team lead in fWAR with James Wood. While the Orioles might be currently off to an incredibly disappointing start, this series serves as proof that the Nationals should still be taken seriously. The Braves may have downed them in a four-game series but they’re still a tricky team to deal with.
Tuesday, May 20, 6:45 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Spencer Strider (1 GS, 5.0 IP, 23.8 K%, 4.8 BB%, 3.60 ERA, 86 ERA-, 4.90 FIP, 123 FIP-, 0.0 fWAR)
Alright, hopefully this time we’ll get to see Spencer Strider return for longer than just five innings. Atlanta’s local fireball hurler is back on the mound (and hopefully for good this time) after suffering an extremely unfortunate hamstring injury while playing catch. He’s back now and the obvious hope is that he’ll be able to build on the okay performance that he delivered North of the border when he made his first comeback attempt.
One thing to keep an eye on is Strider’s velocity. There was a bit of concern when his velocity was reportedly down during a simulated game. With that being said, I don’t think it’s much of anything to worry about and Spencer Strider, himself, believes that it isn’t anything to worry about. So let’s not worry about it!
“Not gonna go out and throw as hard as I can in a sim game. Sure if I did, the pitching gurus on the internet would criticize me. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.”
Lot of attention paid to Spencer Strider’s fastball velo in his rehab sim game. Got Strider’s take this morning pic.twitter.com/6anCgPt78o— Justin Felder (@Justin_FOX5) May 15, 2025
LHP Mitchell Parker (9 GS, 50.0 IP, 14.8 K%, 11.1 BB%, 4.32 ERA, 105 ERA-, 3.71 FIP, 91 FIP-, 1.1 fWAR)
The last time Mitchell Parker was on the mound, he had his start against the Braves cut short after Austin Riley hit him with a comebacker on his knee. The hit took him out of the game in the fifth inning and by that point, he had given up four runs off of four hits and two walks over 80 pitches, so maybe he didn’t have a lot much else left to offer in that one.
Either way, there were obvious concerns that Parker may have been injured but fortunately for him and the Nationals, he was able to make a bullpen session on Friday so he’s good to go for his start on Tuesday. Obviously, the Braves will be hoping to pick up where they left off against Parker (without injuring the guy, of course).
Wednesday, May 21, 6:45 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast, MLB Network)
RHP AJ Smith-Shawver (7 GS, 38.2 IP, 24.8 K%, 10.6 BB%, 2.33 ERA, 55 ERA-, 3.44 FIP, 87 FIP-, 0.7 fWAR)
The Braves will also be hoping that AJ Smith-Shawver will pick up where he left off against the Nationals last week. That was when Smith-Shawver put it all together once again in order to keep the Nationals largely quiet while he was out there. Smith-Shawver went six innings, struck out six and only gave up two hits and two walks for one unearned run. He’s been on a really good run as of late and it wouldn’t be too shocking if he kept it going in Washington this week.
RHP Trevor Williams (9 GS, 45.2 IP, 18.4 K%, 5.8 BB%, 5.91 ERA, 143 ERA-, 3.78 FIP, 93 FIP-, 0.8 fWAR)
Once again, the Braves will be seeing a pitcher that they just got done seeing earlier last week and once again, they’ll be pretty happy if they can repeat what happened last week. That was when the Braves got to Williams for four runs (three of which were earned) over 4.1 innings of work. That was also the fourth-straight start where Williams had surrendered at least four runs, so it also wouldn’t be too shocking if the pattern held up and the Braves found a way to put up another four runs on the board.
Thursday, May 22, 6:45 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
LHP Chris Sale (10 GS, 54.2 IP, 30.4 K%, 6.3 BB%, 3.62 ERA, 86 ERA-, 3.00 FIP, 76 FIP-, 1.3 fWAR)
The good news for the Nationals is that they’ll get to see a new Braves pitcher on Thursday. The bad news is that it’s Chris Sale and it’s a version of Sale that appears to have figured things out this year. He went up to his former stomping grounds at Fenway Park and delivered seven innings where he only gave up one run and struck out eight batters. That’ll certainly do the trick.
Sale has made six starts since April 19 and over those 35.2 innings of work, he’s sporting an ERA of 2.02 and a FIP of 2.59 with only eight earned runs allowed, a strikeout percentage of 32.2 percent, a walk rate of 7.4 percent and a strand rate of 88.8 percent. I think he’s back, y’all. Even if he’s not completely dominant, I’d imagine that we’d all be happy with seven innings and two runs allowed — which was his result against the Nationals the last time he saw them in 2024.
LHP MacKenzie Gore (10 GS, 56.1 IP, 35.6 K%, 7.6 BB%, 3.67 ERA, 89 ERA-, 2.98 FIP, 74 FIP-, 1.5 fWAR)
The Braves are getting to see MacKenzie Gore for the first time this season and they certainly got enough of seeing him in 2024. Gore faced the Braves four times last season and Atlanta didn’t have a good time against him at all until the final encounter on September 10. That was when they scored seven runs on Gore over just 3.2 innings and while only two of them were earned runs, it still felt very good seeing the Braves make it happen with Gore on the mound to that extent.
While Gore can pitch with the best of them on any given day, he hasn’t looked super nasty as of late. He gave up two runs on 10 hits over just 3.2 innings against the Orioles in his most recent outing and that was after he gave up four runs over 6.2 innings against the Cardinals in his outing before that. He’s still got a few gems to his name here in 2025 but the Braves may be catching him at an opportune time for their sakes.