Field Level Media
Aug 8, 2021
Ozzie Albies and Adam Duvall hit two-out, two-run homers to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 5-4 win against the visiting Washington Nationals in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon.
Braves left-hander Max Fried (9-7) allowed one run and seven hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked one.
Chris Martin gave up a run in the ninth before earning his first save of the season.
Ryan Zimmerman had three hits and two RBIs for the Nationals.
Nationals starter Patrick Corbin got off to a strong start, but couldn't get the final out in the third and sixth innings before giving up the long ball. Corbin (6-11) allowed five runs and five hits in six innings, striking out five and walking one.
Corbin got the first eight outs on 20 pitches, but Fried reached on a single up the middle with two outs in the third. Albies followed with a two-run blast to center field, his 18th of the season, for a 2-1 lead.
Corbin got stung after two were out again in the sixth.
Austin Riley dropped an opposite-field double just inside the right-field line to score Dansby Swanson from first to make it 3-1. Duvall then lined a home run over the left-field fence to make it 5-1.
It was the 24th home run of the season for Duvall, and the 27th allowed by Corbin, which leads the National League.
Jesse Chavez replaced Fried to start the seventh and gave up RBI singles to Victor Robles and Zimmerman to cut the lead to 5-3.
Zimmerman's RBI double in the ninth made it 5-4 before Martin got the final out.
Fried gave up a leadoff single to Luis Garcia in the third and then walked Corbin, who came in 3-for-34 at the plate this season. With runners on the corners and one out, Alcides Escobar dropped a single into center field for a 1-0 lead.
Freddie Freeman did not start for Atlanta after leaving the 3-2 loss to Washington on Saturday with an upper respiratory infection, but the reigning NL MVP entered in the seventh at first base.
Juan Soto, the defending NL batting champion and first time All Star this season, was not in Washington's starting lineup for a second consecutive game because of a sore knee, but pinch-hit in the eighth and struck out.
--Field Level Media