Nationals grab series win with 2-1 victory over Braves

ATLANTA — The Nationals needed some length out of Foster Griffin’s outing.

After the team announced pregame it had placed Jake Irvin on the 15-day IL, Griffin needed to save the bullpen as best as he could with three games left in their stretch of 16 straight games without a day off.

Griffin, after two consecutive poor starts, showed the form that made him one of the best feel-good stories in baseball in Washington’s 2-1 win over Atlanta on Sunday. But, in a battle of MLB’s highest-scoring teams, it was the Nationals’ pitching staff, which entered the game with the fifth-highest ERA in the sport, and stout defense that allowed them to be in position to win a series against baseball’s best team.

It wasn’t an easy win for the Nationals, and they almost unraveled 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 Nasim Nuñez — cut the lead to 2–1. Lovelady recorded an out and a walk before being replaced by Orlando Ribalta, who struck out Chadwick Tromp and induced a groundout to end the game.

The Nationals’ pitching staff handled traffic well.

Griffin ran into trouble 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.

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 Braves hitters on an overcast day by changing pitches and locations, and by incorporating all seven of his pitches.

But to win the Nationals had to manufacture scoring on a day when even well-struck balls weren’t going far and the game was delayed twice by rain. After keeping the Braves from scoring a run in the top half of the fourth, the Nationals got one off left-hander Martín Pérez.

The Nationals had struggled with runners in scoring position in their first two games of the series — going 1-for-18.

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