Braves edge Nationals thanks to Albies’ two-run knock, bullpen

“I wasn’t thinking about the sweeper, to be honest with you,” Albies said. “Not going to lie to you and say, ‘Yeah, I was looking for that.’ No, I wasn’t. I was looking more, like, a fastball up, change-up eye level and all that. But I think because I was looking up, I saw it bigger.

“It still was out of the zone. Put a good swing on it, though, and got a hit right there to help the team win. It’s super, super fun when we’re winning. So definitely happy that it came in the right moment.”

Before Albies’ clutch hit, Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz told home plate umpire Chad Fairchild that Albies’ right foot was out of the batter’s box, according to Albies. So Albies adjusted his stance, “and then, boom, the base hit comes.”

The team’s core of relievers, meanwhile, totaled 4⅓ innings and held the Nationals’ high-powered offense to a single run during that stretch.

Dylan Lee stranded the tying run on third in the seventh and then threw a 1-2-3 eighth. Closer Raisel Iglesias earned his 23rd save of the season with a scoreless ninth.

Because of their efforts, the Braves (64-45) stretched their lead to seven games in the NL East, improved to 54-1 when leading after eight innings and 15-3 in series openers at home.

“Every night they go out there, (Braves manager) Walt (Weiss) puts them in ready to attack hitters, and they have been doing a phenomenal job all season,” Albies said of the bullpen. “They’ve been getting the ball, attacking hitters. It’s fun to see and it’s definitely helping us win games.”

The Nationals (55-55) took the night’s first lead thanks to a Daylen Lile solo homer to begin the second inning off Braves starter Grant Holmes. Lyle blasted a cutter — that didn’t cut enough — 394 feet into the right field seats.

Luis García Jr. put the Nats up 2-0 in the third with a 455-foot solo shot that landed on top of the Chop House. In the fourth, Lile banged a curveball into the Braves’ bullpen, putting the Nationals up 3-0.

Nationals starter Jake Irvin (2-5) was perfect through 3⅓. Ronald Acuña Jr. changed that with a solo home run to the opposite field, Acuña’s first homer since May 31 and first homer at Truist Park since April 24.

Holmes couldn’t stand the slight shift in momentum, though, walking the first two batters of the fifth. He struck out the next two before Weiss came to get him, despite the righty having thrown only 69 pitches.

Reliever Danny Young got CJ Abrams to pop to short, making Holmes’ final line read three earned runs allowed over 4⅔ innings. Holmes has pitched more than five innings only five times this season in 20 starts.

The Braves took Holmes off the hook in the bottom of the inning, however, when they got a lifeline from Nationals right fielder James Wood. Wood made a diving attempt on a sinking line drive off the bat of Dominic Smith, and the ball popped out of his glove. When Wood got to his feet, collected the ball, and tried to throw to first to get Smith, who had made a wide turn, the ball skipped all the way to the backstop, allowing Smith to get to second.

It wouldn’t quite matter where Smith was standing in the end, as Mike Yastrzemski stepped in and jumped on a 1-0 curveball for a two-run, game-tying home run to right field. It was Yastrzemski’s first homer since his grand slam in Pittsburgh on July 9.

“Got a middle-middle curveball. Saw it early,” Yastrzemski said. “Got to give (Smith) a bunch of credit for getting on base there and having the heads-up opportunity to take an extra bag. It kind of takes a little pressure off the situation when you have a guy in scoring position because all you got to think about there is just a base hit, and it kind of slows you down and settles you in versus trying to manufacture too much.”

Irvin, activated from the 60-day injured list Thursday and making his first start since May 23, ran out of gas in the sixth. Walks to Drake Baldwin and Acuña, respectively, forced a call to the bullpen — a call to Palmquist that nearly worked.

Palmquist got Matt Olson to pop out to center field and threw out Michael Harris II on a swinging bunt up the third base line. But Palmquist threw one too many sweepers to Albies, the third of which was lined into right-center for a two-run single.

The Nationals came right back in the seventh and nearly rallied to tie the game. Víctor Mederos (1-0) walked Wood with one out, then García smoked a line drive that a diving Harris couldn’t get to in deep right-center. That went for an RBI triple and drew the visitors within 5-4.

But Lee stranded García at third by getting Abrams to ground out to first, and the Nationals only got one more base runner the rest of the way.

The Braves improved to 18-16 in one-run games.

“A lot of credit goes to our bullpen,” Yastrzemski said. “They keep us in games, they secure games, they’ve done an incredible job. And we’ve had a bunch of different guys step up in the bullpen. It’s been huge to have those guys that just come in and lay it out on the line and pitch with their hearts and do a great job so far.”