The Atlanta Braves win yet another close game with the Washington Nationals, earning their first walk-off win of the year in extra innings by a 7-6 score.
The Braves were looking to get some sort of offense going against Tanner Roark, and they finally cracked the scoreboard against him with an RBI single by Evan Gattis in the second inning. Ramiro Pena, already with a late-inning home run last year against Washington, followed with a three-run homer to put Atlanta up 4-0.
Washington cut into the lead in the fourth, taking advantage of Julio Teheran's struggling with location with a walk and three straight singles. The following inning, they received a very generous gift, courtesy of Dan Uggla.
Adam LaRoche hit the most routine of groundballs right to Uggla with two outs. All he had to do was make a catchable throw to Freddie Freeman, but he couldn't even do that. The throw short-hopped Freeman, allowing the inning to continue for Ryan Zimmerman who answered with a game-tying three-run homer.
Roark wasn't fooling any of the Braves hitters and was uncharacteristically wild, hitting three batters and leaving after Freeman's two-out double in the fifth. Chris Johnson chased him home to untie the game, but Washington quickly re-tied it in the sixth on Kevin Frandsen's pinch-hit RBI single.
In the seventh, Jordan Walden struck out Anthony Rendon and Jayson Werth to start the inning, but Adam LaRoche singled and Zimmerman walked, allowing Bryce Harper an RBI opportunity. He never got the chance, though, as a wild pitch resulted in a crazy play at the plate. The pitch bounced far enough away from Evan Gattis for LaRoche to try to score from second, but Gattis fired a strike to Walden covering the plate, and LaRoche was out. The call was challenged, but ultimately upheld.
Washington would not be turned away, however, in the eighth, stringing three straight hits off David Carpenter (one of them hit Angel Hernandez, the poor soul) to take the short-lived lead. It was short-lived only because Justin Upton belted a line-drive home run off who else but Tyler Clippard to tie the score yet again, Upton's third home run in three days.
In the 10th, after Chris Johnson worked his BABIP magic, Jordan Schafer pinch-ran for him at first with two outs. Nats reliever Jerry Blevins wouldn't stop throwing over but when he did, Schafer had a huge jump and the younger Upton put the ball in the perfect spot as Schafer easily raced around third for the winning run.
Win Expectancy