Atlanta lost a close game tonight, despite Nationals' ace Stephen Strasburg leaving after two innings with a strained right oblique. Strasburg pitched two innings, allowing one run on a long homer to Freddie Freeman. In the second inning, his velocity was noticeably down and he seemed to be favoring his right shoulder. Davey Johnson let him finish out the inning, but then immediately pulled him. Strasburg didn't look too happy to be taken out.
Craig Stammen came on in relief of Strasburg and was magnificent, throwing 4 perfect innings and keeping the Braves at bay.
The Nationals scored quickly in first and never trailed. Denard Span hit the second pitch of the game for a leadoff triple, and scored a few pitches later on Steve Lombardozzi's sacrifice fly. Three seeing-eye singles in a row would give Washington another run in the second inning, and they notched their final tally when Span hit another leadoff triple in the sixth and scored - again - on a Lombardozzi sacrifice.
The Braves only threatened again in the seventh. Ramiro Pena singled, advanced on a wild pitch, then scored on a Freddie Freeman RBI single to make it 3-2. Tyler Clippard would then hit Evan Gattis and Brian McCann to load the bases with only one out. But Dan Uggla and Chris Johnson would both strike out to end the threat, and Washington would go on to win 3-2.
Despite the score, Julio Teheran pitched magnificently, getting 9 strikeouts in only 6.2 innings of work. He gave up 7 hits and only walked 1 man.
Atlanta will look to snap a three game losing streak against Washington tomorrow, when Tim Hudson takes on Gio Gonzalez. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15.