Braves beat Nationals 9-0, split road series
Sean Murphy and Ronald Acuña Jr. each homered in a 9-0 win that salvaged a split in Washington, and the Braves carry it into Philadelphia 4 games up on the Phillies.
Murphy and Acuña power a 9-0 finish in Washington
The Nationals beat the Braves 9-5 on September 1, breaking the game open with a big middle innings surge — Yohandy Morales homered in his major league debut and Jared Simpson worked three perfect innings to pick up the win in his own debut, per Mark Zuckerman.
Nationals5-9Nationals9-0Atlanta answered the next night, beating the Nationals 9-0 on September 2 to salvage a split of the road series. Sean Murphy went 2-for-4 with a homer and 4 RBI, and Ronald Acuña Jr. added a 3-for-5 night with a homer, 3 RBI and a stolen base. The win left the Braves 3-2 in their last 5 and 83-57 on the season.
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Grant Holmes, who started the September 2 win over the Nationals, will start again Monday, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
On the injury side, Atlanta transferred reliever Robert Suárez (elbow) to the 60-day injured list on Tuesday. Reynaldo Lopez (knee) took a step toward activation off the 15-day list, throwing 5 scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts in a rehab start with Triple-A Gwinnett on Thursday, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks.
Upcoming
The Braves are in Philadelphia tonight, with Chris Sale (13-9, 2.06 ERA) opposite Cristopher Sánchez (16-4, 2.52 ERA). Sale's last time out was a complete game against the Dodgers on August 27 — 9 innings, 11 strikeouts, no walks, on 109 pitches. Sánchez last pitched August 29 against the Angels, working 7 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts and a walk in a no-decision.
Philadelphia sits 4 games back of Atlanta in the NL East with an elimination number of 19, giving the opener some weight beyond the three games themselves. The Phillies are favored at home, and the total points to a low-scoring night — a fair read with both starters coming off scoreless outings, and one Atlanta will need Sale to match if it wants to take control of the series early.