ATLANTA – When the Nationals walked into the visiting clubhouse for the first time on Monday, Michael Soroka was greeted with some familiar faces. The longtime Brave already knew some of the clubhouse managers from his first six seasons in the major leagues, all spent in Atlanta.

Hugs were exchanged. Questions about life and family were asked. Smiles were shared.

Then when the Nats returned Tuesday afternoon for the second of a four-game set against the Braves, Soroka was focused on his 20th start at Truist Park, the first as a visitor.

“I was excited,” Soroka said last night after his third start in a Nationals uniform. “Obviously, it's been a while since we were over here. Took that mound. And yeah, there's not a ton of guys over there that I played with all those years back then. But still, certainly some that I came up with and made good memories with. But I definitely wanted to give them my best tonight and felt like we did that.”

Due to a high pitch count of 81, Soroka finished only four innings, giving up four hits, two runs, one walk and four strikeouts, in his first outing against his former team. And while doing so, he did something he had not previously done over the course of his career.

In his first-inning at-bat against former teammate Austin Riley, the right-hander threw two four-seam fastballs over 97 mph. Those were the first pitches he had ever thrown over 96.9 mph.

The adrenaline of facing his former team got to him.

“I set out to make sure I gave them my best tonight,” Soroka said. “And yeah, obviously, Austin's one of the guys that I came up with, and I wasn't gonna let him beat me on anything but my best. Everything was clicking early. I thought mechanically in the bullpen, everything fell into place. … it's definitely something to improve on going forward.”

“That's the sign of he's facing his old team, as we talked about,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He was just amped up, which was nice. But he got right back to who he was. And like I said, all his pitches were electric today.”

Aside from the two-run home run to Drake Baldwin, Soroka only surrendered singles in his outing, another positive takeaway.

“The stuff was good. And on nights when your stuff's good, it's a matter of being in the zone early and often,” he said. “And I felt like getting to the point where some of the specific two strikes just could have been a little bit better to make sure that we maintained either weak contact or swing-and-miss. Kind of over finished some stuff. Maybe that was me being a little too gassed up to try and punch everybody out. But yeah, like I said, it's a good recipe for success to be getting ahead of guys. Hopefully I'll keep doing that.”

Soroka hasn’t yet had time to go chat with his former teammates. But now that his start day has passed, he might be able to wander to the first base side, where he’s so familiar, to catch up with old friends. Yesterday, however, was all business.

“No, not really. I made sure that they knew it was compete time,” Soroka said. “I think I said something about Austin wearing tennis shoes in BP yesterday. But no, I try to keep it all business when we're out there. I want to win, so that matters a lot.”