Strengthening the theory of momentum being the next day’s starter, the Braves quickly distanced themselves from Friday night’s crushing loss with the help of Julio Teheran, who bested All-Star Stephen Strasburg in more ways than one during Saturday afternoon’s 13-0 win over the Nationals at Nationals Park.

Teheran set the tone as he scattered four hits over seven innings and contributed a pair of run-producing singles before Strasburg exited after the third with the Braves owning a 6-0 lead. Atlanta would be in position to sweep this four-game series had closer Jim Johnson not let a three-run, ninth-inning lead slip away in Friday’s 10-inning loss.
“It’s good to see the guys bounce back after the extra-inning game and the late night [Thursday],” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “They’re a resilient group. When you’re starting pitcher gives you that performance, it keeps guys on edge and they keep pushing and grinding.”
Strasburg escaped a 20-pitch first unscathed, but never seemed to find comfort as he allowed six runs (three earned) and surrendered seven hits in three innings. He has allowed six runs four times within his past 21 starts. The Braves have accounted for three of those occasions, including both of their matchups against him this year.
The Nationals right-hander did not record a strikeout, marking the first time in his career he has been blanked in this category while pitching more than one inning. He also induced just three swing and misses, which stands as his second-lowest total since Statcast™ began in 2015.
“Bad luck, to be honest,” Strasburg said. “Other than [Freddie Freeman] and [Nick Markakis], they really weren’t squaring the ball up. I just got singled to death.”
Markakis finished a triple shy of the cycle and teamed with Brandon Phillips to make some key defensive contributions that carried Teheran through the early innings. Matt Adams’ three-run homer in the ninth added to the onslaught produced by the Braves, who have won six of the past nine matchups.
“You’ve got to play well as a team to beat a team like that,” Markakis said. “We did today. I think we played probably the best defense we did all year and we pitched and we hit. When you get all three, usually good things happen.”
Within his first two plate appearances, Teheran doubled his previous season hit total (two) and improved to 4-for-7 in his career against Strasburg. The Atlanta hurler followed the first of Kurt Suzuki’s two RBI singles with one of his own in the second. Teheran then capped his eighth career multi-hit game with a two-run single in the third.
“You could tell [that] was going to be the pitchers’ day today because when he gets two hits, I looked up there and I think he was hitting .103,” Washington manager Dusty Baker said, “so that just shows you anybody with a bat is dangerous.”
Teheran’s offensive contributions allowed the Braves to overcome their first three hitters — Ender Inciarte, Phillips and Freeman — combining to go 2-for-16.
“When you have a pitcher getting more hits than a position player, that really says a lot,” Phillips said.
The Nationals had a chance to cut into the Braves’ 6-0 lead in the third when Daniel Murphy came to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second. Murphy’s knock had an exit velocity of 100.2 mph and had a 79 percent hit probability, per Statcast™, and was headed for right field. But Phillips’ diving catch ended the frame as the Nationals finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and were shut out for the first time this season.
“We hit some balls extremely hard,” Baker said. “They made some great plays out there on us. I guess it just wasn’t our day. … Hopefully we go another 80-something games without getting shut out.”
Atlanta rookie lefty Sean Newcomb will start the finale of the four-game series Sunday at 12:35 p.m. CT at Nationals Park. Newcomb impressed through his first four starts and then was humbled as he lasted just 3 1/3 innings against Houston’s potent lineup Tuesday.

The Memphis Redbirds scored two runs in the ninth inning to steal a 3-2 win from the Nashville Sounds in front of another sellout crowd of 11,484 at First Tennessee Park Saturday night.

The Sounds (42-47) were in control for most of the night before the Redbirds’ two-out rally in the final inning. Nashville reliever Josh Smith retired the first two batters in the frame before Patrick Wisdom singled to left. Smith had two strikes on Todd Cunningham before he worked a walk to put runners at first and second. The hit and walk came back to hurt when Breyvic Valera followed with a double into the left-center gap that plated both runners to give the Redbirds a 3-2 lead.

Nashville made noise in the ninth and loaded the bases before falling short. Renato Nuñez and Joey Wendle singled to start the frame. Mark Canha dropped down a sacrifice bunt and Beau Taylor was walked to fill the bases.

Memphis reliever Mark Montgomery came back to strike out Jermaine Curtis and retire Melvin Mercedes on a fly ball to center to lock down the win.

Starters Frankie Montas and John Gant held the other team off the board until the fifth. The Sounds used four hits to score a pair of runs in the fifth to take a 2-0 lead.

Montas worked four scoreless innings and limited the Redbirds to one hit. He walked a pair and struck out five in a no-decision. Gant worked seven innings and held the Sounds to two runs on six hits while racking up six strikeouts in his no-decision.

Nashville held a 2-0 lead until the seventh when Wisdom’s single to left brought in Chad Huffman to make it a 2-1 game.

Patrick Schuster and Smith combined to work a scoreless top of the eighth inning to hold serve. It wouldn’t hold in the ninth, however, as the Sounds blew their 12th save of the season.

Smith was tagged with the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season while Ryan Sheriff earned the win for Memphis and Montgomery notched his fourth save.

The series finale is scheduled for Sunday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Chris Jensen (4-0, 4.29) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Josh Zeid (5-2, 5.38) for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

For 8 1/2 innings, it seemed like the Braves were about to make the National League East race a little more interesting, but the Nationals maintained their division dominance by staging a fierce ninth-inning rally on the way to claiming a 5-4 walk-off win in 10 innings on Friday night at Nationals Park.

After contributing to the three-run ninth the Nats constructed against Braves closer Jim Johnson, who has blown seven of 26 save opportunities, Daniel Murphy delivered a walk-off single — and an emphatic bat flip — against Ian Krol to allow the Nationals to regain a 9 1/2-game division lead over Atlanta. Murphy’s single to left field scored Adrian Sanchez, who had started the inning by singling for his first career hit.
“I love comebacks,” said Nationals manager Dusty Baker, whose squad has been on the opposite end of those heroics many times this season. “That was probably one of the best comebacks we’ve had this year.”
Braves right-hander R.A. Dickey carried a no-hit bid through five innings and ended up allowing one run over seven innings. Stephen Drew began the bottom of the sixth with a double and scored when Matt Wieters followed with a single. But the Nationals tallied just one other hit against the knuckleballer, who has produced a 1.00 ERA over four starts since allowing a season-high eight earned runs at this same stadium on June 13.
“Dickey’s knuckleball was on tonight, but then they bring in the next guy who’s about 20 mph harder than him,” Wieters said. “You’ve gotta speed up the timing a little bit, and it’s actually pretty effective when you can have a knuckleball guy be as successful as he was.”
Making his final start of the first half and gearing up to possibly serve as the National League’s starter in Tuesday’s All-Star Game presented by Mastercard, Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer struck out 10 but allowed four earned runs over 7 2/3 innings. His bid to allow two runs or fewer in a ninth consecutive start evaporated when he exited with two on in the eighth and watched Freddie Freeman greet Oliver Perez with a two-run single to left field. Freeman also began the seventh with his first home run since returning from the disabled list on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to win these kinds of games if we’re going to get back in this race,” Freeman said. “We played a great game. They just had the right guys at the right time coming up to the plate. They did what they normally do.”
The Nationals had their way with Johnson in their game-tying, three-run ninth inning. Murphy and Anthony Rendon fueled the rally with consecutive RBI singles before the first out was recorded, then Wieters delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly. Atlanta manager Brian Snitker was ejected after Wieters got a favorable ruling on a check swing.
“It’s because of how we grind at-bats,” Wieters said. “There’s not one guy in the lineup that’s giving away at-bats. When you do that, you can put together big, long innings and kind of get back in a game or score runs as far as three, four, five runs in an inning. We pride ourselves on being able to grind out at-bats, see pitches, and get on base.”
After missing seven weeks with a fractured left wrist, Freeman returned to Atlanta’s lineup on Tuesday with the benefit of just five plate appearances in Minor League rehab games. There haven’t been any signs of rust, as Scherzer was reminded when the Braves slugger turned on a 1-0 slider and sent it into the right-field seats to open the seventh inning. The solo shot, which gave the Braves a 2-1 lead, had a 38-degree launch angle, per Statcast™. It was the first homer Scherzer has allowed since June 16.
Freeman has a 10.13 at-bat/home run ratio. Yankees rookie phenom Aaron Judge leads MLB with a 9.8 ratio.
“I feel good,” Freeman said. “I wouldn’t have told them to activate me if I didn’t feel good. My wrist feels healthy. I feel good at the plate, and I’m seeing everything. So, I was just thankful to get a pitch to hit and get it up over the fence.”
Julio Teheran will take the mound when this four-game series resumes Saturday at 3:05 p.m. CT at Nationals Park. Teheran has a 2.88 ERA through eight road starts. He allowed two runs over seven innings at Nationals Park on June 14.

Mark Canha’s base hit in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Joey Wendle to give the Nashville Sounds a 3-2 win over the Memphis Redbirds in front of a sellout crowd of 11,596 at First Tennessee Park Friday night.

Canha’s single off Redbirds reliever Kevin Herget gave the Sounds their third walk-off win in less than a week. They scored back-to-back walk-off wins over the Oklahoma City Dodgers on July 1st and 2nd.

With the score tied 2-2 going into the ninth, Sounds reliever Patrick Schuster faced the minimum in the top half of the inning when he got Aledmys Diaz to bounce into a 5-4-3 double play.

The stage was set for Canha after Joey Wendle doubled down the left field line to start the bottom of the ninth. The double for Wendle was his 94th in a Sounds uniform and tied Skeeter Barnes for the most in franchise history.

Sounds starter Ben Bracewell delivered a much needed six innings. It’s only the second time a Nashville starter has gone at least six innings since June 22nd. Bracewell limited the Redbirds to one run on three hits in the no-decision.

The lone run he allowed came in the fourth when Memphis got on the board to start the scoring. Carson Kelly’s two-out base hit brought in Harrison Bader who previously reached on a walk.

It didn’t take long for the Sounds to draw even as Yairo Muñoz cracked a solo homer to start the bottom half of the inning. It was the first Triple-A home run for Muñoz who was brought up from Double-A Midland two weeks ago.

Muñoz was at it again in the fifth when his bloop single down the right field line scored Melvin Mercedes to give the Sounds a 2-1 lead.

Nashville’s lead lasted until the seventh when Breyvic Valera scored on Todd Cunningham’s base hit to make it a 2-2 game.

It remained 2-2 until Wendle and Canha teamed up to deliver the seventh walk-off of the season for the Sounds.

Game two of the three-game series is scheduled for Saturday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Frankie Montas (0-1, 6.75) starts for the Sounds against right-hander John Gant (1-4, 3.46) for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.