ATLANTA – A burst of progress for the Atlanta Braves ended in frustrating fashion Saturday night.
On Sunday afternoon, they started a new week by getting back to winning.
Ozzie Albies and Adam Duvall each hit a two-run homer off Patrick Corbin, and Max Fried pitched six strong innings as Atlanta beat the Washington Nationals 5-4 at Truist Park.
Albies had just three hits in his previous 26 at-bats when he went deep to make it 2-1 in the third inning. It was his 18th home run of the season.
Corbin has allowed 27 homers, most in the National League this year, and is 0-4 with a 7.22 ERA in his past five starts. The left-hander has lost his past five starts against Atlanta, the three-time reigning NL East Division champion.
The Braves, who have won five of their past six games, remain in second place in the standings, two games behind the Philadelphia Phillies, who beat the New York Mets 3-0 on Sunday to drop them 2 1/2 games back. Atlanta, which had not been above .500 all season before getting over the hump this past week, won a second consecutive series for the first time since June 29-July 4 against the Mets and the Miami Marlins.
Atlanta manager Brian Snitker was pleased with how his team shook off Saturday night’s 3-2 loss in which the Nationals scored all of their runs in the ninth.
“Those tough losses, they happen,” Snitker said. “They’re part of it, but still when you’re going to bed and all of a sudden you’re right back here, it’s good to see how they bounced back.”
The fourth-place Nationals, who have dropped six of seven, fell nine games behind the Phillies.
Fried had gone 1-1 with an 8.44 ERA in three starts against the Nationals this season. Fried (9-7) stranded runners on first and third to end the sixth. He allowed seven hits and one run with one walk and five strikeouts.
“Mostly it’s just slowing everything down, focusing on my breathing, the only thing I can control is executing this pitch right here and there,” Fried said. “Not trying to do too much in one pitch and kind of trusting the defense.”
AP photo by Brynn Anderson / Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies takes a swing during Sunday’s home game against the Washington Nationals. Albies hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the third inning, and the Braves won 5-4 to take two of three games in the series between NL East rivals at Truist Park.Atlanta made it 5-1 in the sixth when Albies walked and scored on Austin Riley’s double and Duvall hit his 24th homer of 2021.
Chris Martin faced five batters in the ninth for the Braves, earning a shaky first save in three chances. Ryan Zimmerman doubled in a run to make it 5-4 off Martin.
Corbin (6-11) gave up five hits and five runs with one walk and five strikeouts in six innings.
He couldn’t really explain why so many of his pitches have left the yard this season.
“I was trying to put up a zero, but that’s the way it’s been going for me,” Corbin said. “I don’t know an answer for it … I feel good, and that’s really all I can say. The results just really haven’t been there. I wasn’t fatigued at all. They just happened to score there.”
Washington led 1-0 in the third after Luis Garcia singled, advanced on a walk and a bunt and scored on Alcides Escobar’s single. RBI singles by Victor Robles and Zimmerman trimmed Atlanta’s lead to 5-3 against Jesse Chavez in the seventh.
Fried struck out Josh Bell to strand a runner at second base in the first. Yadiel Hernandez singled in the second and was erased on a double-play grounder.
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman was not in the lineup after leaving Saturday’s game with an upper respiratory infection, but he entered as a defensive replacement in the seventh. He had started 110 of Atlanta’s 111 games this year. Since his first full MLB season of 2011, Freeman has made 1,471 starts, second in the majors during that span to the Kansas City Royals’ Carlos Santana.