Game 54: Nats at Braves
It's a matchup of 30-something lefties in the rubber game of this weekend's series in rainy Atlanta
ATLANTA – The Nationals have been dodging rain all week, and they’ve managed to avoid any exceptionally long disruptions, with only a couple of brief delays over the last five days, each of them under 45 minutes. Let’s hope for the same (or better) today, because we’re yet again dealing with a spotty forecast, with thunderstorms popping up all over the place, but none of them lingering for too long it seems.
This was already going to be a strange Sunday, given the unusual 4:10 p.m. start time. Why the late start? This game isn’t on national TV. The Nats have to fly to Cleveland afterward for Monday night’s game against the Guardians. There doesn’t appear to be any logical reason for it.
We’ve got a matchup of 30-something left-handers for the rubber game of the series. Foster Griffin gets the ball for the Nationals, looking to bounce back from his first two subpar starts of the season. He did beat the Braves last month in D.C., allowing three runs over six innings on 96 pitches.
Martin Pérez, who has been all over the place the last few years, makes his seventh start for Atlanta. The 35-year-old faced the Nats in long relief last month, giving up homers to James Wood and Joey Wiemer.
The other news of the day: Jake Irvin has been placed on the 15-day IL with a right shoulder strain, which the club is describing a best-case scenario. The Nationals recalled PJ Poulin from Triple-A Rochester to give them an extra arm in the bullpen. I’ll have a full article on this coming up shortly, so please be on the lookout for that.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: Truist Park
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: Nationals TV (channel listings)
Radio: 106.7 FM
Weather: Periodic rain, 77 degrees, wind 6 mph in from center
NATIONALS
LF James Wood
3B Curtis Mead
1B Andrés Chaparro
SS CJ Abrams
RF Dylan Crews
DH Daylen Lile
CF Jacob Young
2B Nasim Nuñez
C Keibert Ruiz
LHP Foster Griffin
BRAVES
RF Ronald Acuña Jr.
LF Mauricio Dubón
1B Matt Olson
2B Ozzie Albies
3B Austin Riley
CF Michael Harris II
RF Eli White
SS Ha-Seong Kim
C Sandy León
LHP Martin Pérez
They are desperately trying to get the field playable. God bless 'em, but this feels like a hopeless effort.
What a disaster. They waited too long to go into delay, and because of that, the field was too wet for them to be able to get the tarp across the full infield. First base became an absolute quagmire. They've tried to cover it with other smaller tarps, but the damage is done. A complete display of mismanagement today by the Braves and the umpires. But the Nats might just walk out of here with a 1-0, six-inning win.