Foster Griffin threw six scoreless innings, Nasim Nunez and Luis Garcia Jr. each drove in a run and the visiting Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 2-1 on Sunday.
Griffin (6-2) allowed just three hits, struck out six and walked one for Washington, which became the first team this season to take a road series against Atlanta.
Martin Perez (2-3) threw 5 2/3 innings for Atlanta, yielding one run on five hits, while striking out two and walking two in a game delayed twice by rain.
After a 20-minute rain delay before the game started, Perez worked around James Wood’s leadoff walk to toss a scoreless first.
Matt Olson began the fourth with a double to right for the Braves’ first extra-base hit. Ozzie Albies then legged out an infield single and Griffin hit Michael Harris II to load the bases with one out.
Griffin escaped the jam, though, getting Eli White to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Perez allowed Daylen Lile’s leadoff double in the fifth before Jacob Young’s single placed runners on the corners. Nunez then drove in the game’s first run with a single to right. Keibert Ruiz grounded into a double play and Perez retired Wood to preserve the one-run deficit.
After recording two outs in the sixth, Perez was relieved by Didier Fuentes.
In the seventh, Fuentes tossed just two pitches before the game was halted again as heavy rain caused a second delay.
After nearly 90 minutes, Reynaldo Lopez entered and threw a perfect seventh.
Atlanta’s Austin Riley began the seventh with a single against Andrew Alvarez. After advancing to second on White’s groundout, Riley was stranded as Alvarez struck out Ha-Seong Kim.
Wood earned a one-out walk in the eighth, before stealing second and scoring on Garcia’s pinch-hit RBI single for a 2-0 lead.
After Gus Varland recorded a pair of outs to finish the eighth, he allowed singles to Albies and Riley to place runners on the corners with no outs in the ninth.
Richard Lovelady entered and retired Harris. Albies then scored on Nunez’s fielding error. Lovelady walked Kim to load the bases and Orlando Ribalta came in as Washington’s third pitcher of the ninth.
Ribalta struck out Chadwick Tromp and got Ronald Acuna Jr. to ground out, ending the game and securing his second save of the season.
–Field Level Media
