ATLANTA – The Nats are in the middle of a brutal stretch. Tonight began the fifth of six straight series in which they are facing division leaders, defending pennant winners and reigning world champions.
No one is going to feel sorry for them. But this 3-2 loss to the Braves in front of 40,297 at Truist Park felt pretty painful.
Six outs away from a series-opening victory, Kyle Finnegan ran into some tough luck in the bottom of the eighth as the Braves scored two runs (one earned) to take the lead and extend Atlanta’s streak of four straight come-from-behind victories and six straight overall.
Finnegan took a liner off the lower half of his body for an infield leadoff single. Then another single just got past Luis García and the batter advanced to second on an error by Lane Thomas in right field to put two in scoring position.
The tough luck for Finnegan continued as he got Marcell Ozuna to hit a chopper to Dominic Smith, who couldn't handle it to make a throw home and had to settle for the out at first. Then CJ Abrams couldn’t get to a grounder up the middle as the second run crossed the plate.