Atlanta Braves outsmart Washington Nationals 7-4 to keep post-season hopes alive – MLB Update
Atlanta Braves kept their hopes of qualification alive with a 7-4 win against the Washington Nationals on Friday, September 23 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
Fighting hard to uphold their lead in the Wild Card standings, the Braves desperately needed to win this game. Dan Uggla and Brian McCann drove in two runs each and Tim Hudson tossed 5.2 orderly innings to keep the Braves three games ahead in the Wild Card
race with just five games to play in the regular season.
Uggla singled towards right-field in the first inning to allow Martin Prado a run before Chipper Jones doubled the lead for the visitors on Freddie Freeman’s RBI to right-centre. Uggla followed with run on Ryan Zimmerman’s error at third base to complete
a three-run first inning for the Braves and give them an early advantage in the game.
Dan went 3-for-5 in the game, scoring two runs in addition to his two RBIs. He did not allow Stephen Strasburg to settle down, attacking the starter from the onset to hand him his first loss of the season. He pitched three scoreless innings to follow a tiresome
first inning, but the effort was not enough to make-up for his horrendous performance.
Collin Balester replaced Strasburg in the fifth inning but before he could settle in, Uggla produced a double down left-field to allow Michael Bourn a run before McCann replicated his effort to centre-field for Chipper Jones and Uggla to complete their runs
respectively, extending the lead to five-runs.
Jones had been confident of a backlash by the Braves after facing a dip in form and the team lived to his expectations.
Tim Hudson injected life into Atlanta’s bull-pen with a mesmerising spell of 5.2 innings to win his 16th game of the season. He improved his record against the Nationals to 14-3 after this win to impress manager Fredi Gonzalez, who also expressed
that Kris Medlen could be activated as soon as this weekend.
Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel have come under scrutiny in the recent past for showing weariness, but the duo came back strongly with the former holding his game and the latter saving his 46th game in 53 chances.
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