Nationals grab series win with 2-1 victory over Braves

ATLANTA — Everything about the Nationals’ series win over the Braves was unusual.

From the offense being held in check to the pitching staff leading the way to overcast weather for all three games, the Nationals had to grind their way to a series win Sunday. Enduring two rain delays just added to the weirdness.

But second baseman Nasim Nuñez enjoys these disjointed days.

“It breaks [up] your monotonous cycle,” he said after Sunday’s 2-1 win. “Everybody was going through something; there’s your breaking point.”

The Nationals have won back-to-back series and sit in second place in the National League East at Memorial Day. That’s a remarkable feat for a franchise that was pegged by most to finish in last place.

“These guys rise to the occasion every time,” manager Blake Butera said. “The late nights, the early turnarounds, now we’re about to go on a flight here and get into Cleveland late and turn around and play again tomorrow in the middle of 16 in a row.

“These guys don’t complain, they love playing baseball, and it makes it that much more fun for us as a staff and us as a group.”

The Nationals needed length out of Foster Griffin’s outing. Griffin needed to save the bullpen as best as he could.

Griffin, after two consecutive poor starts, showed the form that made him one of the best feel-good stories in baseball in Sunday’s win.

He threw six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk with six strikeouts. He lived in the strike zone, which is when he’s at his best. The only time Griffin ran into trouble was in the fourth inning.

After allowing a leadoff double and a single, he struck out Austin Riley. He then hit Ozzie Albies with a pitch before inducing an inning-ending double play.

“I feel like I had my backdoor stuff going pretty good,” Griffin said. “I know, when I have that early, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good day.”

When Griffin had struggled of late, it was because he allowed one big inning. Mistakes would compound, and runs would score. Against the high-powered Braves, that didn’t occur. He flummoxed hitters by changing pitches and locations, and by incorporating all seven of his pitches.

The pitching staff as a whole was crucial for the Nationals to win this series, but it still came with turbulence.

In the ninth, reliever Gus Varland allowed back-to-back singles to give the Braves runners on first and third before being replaced by Richard Lovelady. Lovelady recorded a flyout by Michael Harris II before Eli White’s fielder’s choice RBI — with an error charged to Nuñez — cut the lead to 2-1. Lovelady walked Ha-Seong Kim before being replaced by Orlando Ribalta, who struck out Chadwick Tromp and induced a groundout to end the game.

“Trying to navigate that lineup is never easy, especially when there’s not really a pocket of same-handed batters in a row, but I thought all of our guys came in and did a nice job,” Butera said.

Though the offense has powered the team to a 27-27 record at the Memorial Day checkpoint, the lineup was relatively quiet over this three-game set. The Nationals had struggled with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series — going 1-for-18.

But they pushed across enough runs the past two days to win both games.

A leadoff double by Daylen Lile and a Jacob Young single gave them their first run in the fifth. In the eighth, James Wood drew a walk, stole second and advanced to third on Curtis Mead’s flyout. Luis García Jr. entered as a pinch hitter and drove in Wood on a single.

“[Woody] saw an opportunity and took it,” Butera said.

Winning blowout games because the offense is working is fun to watch for fans and for the team. But it’s in the tightly contested games against high-caliber teams that the Nationals’ mettle will be tested. It’s in these games that the culture and foundation for the organization’s future are built.

“What we’re working towards, what we’re trying to build here, you got to believe you’re going to win,” Butera said. “We played a heck of a schedule to start the year, and these guys going out there and playing the way they have, and even games where we lost right up at the end there, it just continues to show that you know we’re pretty good. We can hang around and maybe surprise some people.”

This article has been updated.