Not a lot went right for the Braves in the series opener on Tuesday in Washington
The big event for the Braves as they kicked off a three-game set in Washington was the (re-)return of Spencer Strider, after his hamstring injury kept him out of big league action for about a month. Unfortunately for the Braves, his (re-)return was anything but a happy one, as Strider struggled quite a bit and the lineup sputtered en route to a 5-3 loss.
Let’s start with Strider. I’m not going to speculate as to the why — rust, lack of a rehab start, general “hey this guy is now returning from multiple injuries,” — but fundamentally, this version of Strider was really “just a guy” moreso than “incredibly dominant, generational talent starter.” It wasn’t just the lack of velocity, though that stood out, and Strider didn’t maintain it as he worked deep into the game — the command was also off, and while Strider mixed in quite a few changeups and curves, they were more things to deploy in survival mode than overkill on hapless batters.
The Nationals jumped all over Strider in the first, but honestly, that isn’t all too much of what I think of when I think of Strider struggling in this game. They plated three runs on a sequence of four straight hits and a wild pitch, but of those four hits, one was probably fieldable by Austin Riley, one was a seeing-eye single, and the double that opened the scoring was a soft bloop. The inning mercifully ended after Luis Garcia Jr., who had a solid single to plate the second run, was easily picked off second base.
The troubles actually came later. In the second, Strider got two quick outs but then fell behind 3-0 to Dylan Crews, hitting in the nine-hole. Strider tried to throw a get-me-over fastball, but at just 95 mph, it was obliterated by Crews for a go-ahead and ultimately decisive homer to left. Strider followed by hitting CJ Abrams with a pitch, which segued into a truly bonkers sequence where an errant pickoff throw, Abrams running to third only to make it safely when Matt Olson’s throw was high, only to think that Riley didn’t catch the ball and try to run home where he was easily thrown out, resulted in the second straight inning that Strider escaped without retiring a batter for the third out.
Strider also benefited from a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play in the third, hit another batter in the fourth, and then issued a nasty walk to Crews to lead off the fifth where he didn’t throw a single pitch in the zone. The Braves let him face one more batter, Abrams, who hit a hard fly out to center, but that was it for Strider — 4 1⁄3 innings, three strikeouts, one walk, two hit batters, and the homer by Crews. There’s no need to read anything into one start, and the Nationals have been hitting the ball well, but this wasn’t what the Braves were looking for, nor Strider himself.
The rest of the pitching slate was also very, very meh for Atlanta. Aaron Bummer came in and didn’t get the rug pulled out from under him by his defense, leading to 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings despite an 0/1 K/BB ratio. For whatever reason, the Braves replaced Bummer with Dylan Lee, who gave up a fifth and ultimately meaningless run in the seventh with an 0/1 K/BB ratio of his own. The run largely scored thanks to a bloop single, a balk, and Alex Verdugo throwing home fairly ineffectually on a sac fly. Rafael Montero had a walk and a strikeout in his inning of work, meaning that Braves pitchers finished with a pretty awful 4/4 K/BB ratio on the night.
Not that the offense was any more inspiring. There was a brief glimmer of hope when they battled back to hang a three-run frame on Mitchell Parker to tie the game right after the three-spot the Nats scored in the first, but that was all they offered. Olson crushed a homer off Parker, and then the Braves had a sequence of three straight doubles (one soft, two very hard) to tie the game. But, that was really it. After Riley and Marcell Ozuna both reached against Parker in the third, Olson hit into a double play, Sean Murphy popped out, and that was pretty much the game. The Braves got leadoff singles from Nick Allen in the fifth and pinch-hitter Stuart Fairchild in the eighth, but literally no other baserunners for the rest of the game. Riley hit into a double play to erase Fairchild, too, on a hard-hit ball that was unfortunately hit right to the third baseman.
Fundamentally, the bats jumped on Parker because he was heavily using, and often poorly locating, his curveball. (Olson hit the fourth consecutive fastball from Parker out of the yard, but then it was a steady diet of curveballs for the rest of the inning.) By the third, Parker had stopped using his curve, and while it took him a few batters to dial things in, the Braves were essentially severely flummoxed by his fastball for the rest of the game. They also didn’t fare much better against any of the relievers, as you can tell — four Nationals bullpen arms slammed the door, all while not striking out or walking a single batter. There’s a version of this game where the Braves get some bloops to fall in and grounders that get past the infield and win this game, but that wasn’t what we saw. The Nationals’ defense handed the Braves a bunch of runs last week in Atlanta, but they made the plays today, and the Braves couldn’t ride their sole homer and walk to victory.
Back at .500, the Braves will now try to win consecutive games to take the series. They theoretically still have some time to muddle around, but not that much.