'Everybody was going through something,' but Nats post hard-fought win

ATLANTA – The Nationals' weekend series in Atlanta was every bit of a slog.

The three-game set against the NL East-leading Braves featured an 11-inning contest on Friday and two rain-soaked affairs on Saturday and Sunday that included three weather delays.

Sunday’s game was especially taxing. Not only was there a scheduled 4:10 start time on getaway day for both teams, the first pitch was delayed by 20 minutes and the game was delayed once again – this time for an hour and 28 minutes – in the seventh inning.

For a Nationals team that is playing 16 games in 16 days and is set for a three-game series in Cleveland starting on Monday, those were not welcome developments.

The good news? Washington won its first series at Truist Park since 2024 with a 2-1 win.

After the Braves earned a 5-4 walk-off win on Friday, the Nationals held the Braves to one run over the remaining 18 innings of the series. Washington one-hit the Braves in Saturday’s 2-0 win before they staved off a ninth-inning Braves rally on Sunday to earn the victory in the rubber match.

Manager Blake Butera said his club fought a hard fight in the rain-soaked road series against one of baseball’s top teams.

“These guys rise to the occasion every time [with] the late nights and the early turnarounds,” Butera said. “We’re about to get on a flight here [to] Cleveland late and turn around and play again tomorrow in the middle of 16 [games] in a row. These guys don’t complain. They love playing baseball. It makes it that much more fun for us as a staff and as a group.”

Sunday’s second rain delay lasted much longer than the rain itself, as the Braves’ grounds crew couldn’t get the tarp all the way over the first-base line. Rain hammered the dirt down the line while the grounds crew used every type of tarp it had to cover the exposed dirt.

After some time and plenty of Diamond Dry, play resumed.

“The grounds crew here is incredible [with] the ability to be able to get that game played again with that small of a delay,” Butera said. “I know it felt like a long delay, but with the amount of rain the field took [and] the tarp miscue, all of that stuff, [the field] was in good condition [when] play resumed. I went out there and I was shocked with how firm everything was.”

Once play resumed, the Nationals needed just nine outs to seal the win, but the Braves did not go down without a fight. Atlanta loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, scored their first run in 17 innings and got the potential game-winning run to second with the bases loaded and one down.

Reliever Orlando Ribalta was not daunted. He earned the two-out save by striking out Friday’s walk-off hero Chadwick Tromp and inducing a Ronald Acuña Jr. groundout.

“You just treat it as a regular inning in a way,” Ribalta said. “You just have to go out there and show you gave it all to be able to help the team and get results like this. You try mentally to treat it like a regular inning, while knowing how cautious you have to be.”

The Nationals handed Atlanta its first home series loss this season and second overall series loss of 2026.

Starting pitcher Foster Griffin allowed three hits with six strikeouts and one walk over six scoreless innings. It was Griffin’s fifth quality start of the season.

“It’s a really hard place [to win a series],” Griffin said. “We’re one of two teams [to win a series against the Braves] this year. That was a big series win for us, including the circumstances we had to overcome.”

In Washington’s past four games, its rotation (including Miles Mikolas following an opener Friday) has a 0.78 ERA, with two earned runs allowed over 23 innings.

Entering Sunday’s series finale, the Nationals tallied one hit with runners in scoring position in their prior three games (1-for-26).

Washington changed that narrative as it went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Nasim Nuñez and Luis García each tallied RBI singles. Nuñez’s ninth-inning RBI single proved to be the game-winner.

“I was telling [James Wood] that these are low-key my favorite days because they’re not normal,” Nuñez said. “It kind of breaks your monotonous cycle. Everybody was going through something.”