Braves Lose 2nd Of 9 Against The Nationals

This time, it didn't happen. Where Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg failed, that was where Doug Fister succeeded, as he put on a show over 8 innings of great work against the Braves and Anthony Rendon led the way offensively as the Washington Nationals picked up their 2nd win of the season in 9 tries against the Braves in a 3-0 win.

Now, if you were to look at a statline of 7 IP, 10 Ks, and only 3 ERs for Julio Teheran, you'd think that this was a great night for Julio Teheran. Maybe on a different night where the Braves batters didn't appear to be completely and utterly mystified against the opposing pitcher, that would have been the case. But tonight, it was a night of frustration, and that frustration culminated in the final two innings of his appearance.

In the 6th inning with the Braves down 1-0 thanks to a RBI single from Anthony Rendon in the 3rd inning, Teheran started it off with a 1-out walk to Adam LaRoche. LaRoche ended up getting a free pass to 2nd base after miscommunication between Teheran and Gattis led to a balk. The balk was the first of the season for the Braves as a team, and it ended up being a costly balk as Ryan Zimmerman eventually grounded one up the middle to bring in LaRoche to make it 2-0 for the Nationals.

The bad times bled into the next inning. Just as a leadoff walk to a light hitter burned Craig Kimbrel in the 9th inning of last night's contest, a leadoff walk to 78 wRC+ hitter Jose Lobaton sparked a rally. Also similarly to Craig Kimbrel's blown save, Anthony Rendon was once again the man who made Teheran pay for his transgressions, as he skied one to center that went over B.J. Upton's head and allowed Lobaton to easily score from 2nd for a 2-out RBI double.

Meanwhile, Teheran's frustrations coincided with Doug Fister bouncing back from getting shelled against the Cardinals by having just about as smooth of an outing as you can get: Fister went 8 innings and only struck out 3, but he also only gave out 1 walk.

Any time a guy goes 8 innings and only gives up 1 walk, that means that it was a bad night for the offense, and that was the case for Atlanta. The only time that the Braves had a runner pass 2nd for the entire game was in the 1st inning, which is when B.J. Upton made it to 3rd thanks to a single from Freddie Freeman. Other than that, it wasn't a good night for the Braves at the plate, which is normally the case when a guy like Doug Fister is "on," so to speak.

The win put the Nationals back in first place for the time being, and they also got a rare victory against the Braves as of late. As it turns out, the Braves can stop beating the Nationals sometimes.

Source: FanGraphs