Atlanta @ Washington preview
Nationals Park
Last Meeting ( Sep 25, 2010 ) Atlanta 5, Washington 0
The Atlanta Braves finally snapped their losing streak. Now they have to wait for other teams to lose.
The Braves will be looking to stay in the thick of the wild card race when they close out a three-game series against the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
After falling out of the National League wild card lead with an 8-3 loss in Friday’s series opener, Atlanta snapped its five-game slide with a 5-0 triumph on Saturday afternoon, getting five scoreless innings from postseason veteran Derek Lowe in the process.
But it was an offense that had been failing recently that really stepped up Saturday, finally putting together a decent rally capped by Alex Gonzalez’s three-run homer in the fifth. The Braves had averaged fewer than three runs per game over their previous 11 and had not scored more than three in a game since last Sunday.
The win marked a personal milestone for manager Bobby Cox, who became the fourth skipper in major league history to reach 2,500 wins. The 69-year-old Cox plans to retire after the season and is looking for his 16th trip to the postseason.
With the San Francisco Giants losing on Saturday and the San Diego Padres winning, the Padres leaped over the Giants for first place in the NL West and the Braves pulled even with San Francisco at the top of the wild card standings.
Brandon Beachy will get his second career start for the Braves in today’s series finale. The 24-year-old right-hander is below names like Mike Minor, Julio Teheran, Randall Delgado, J.J. Hoover and Arodys Vizcaino on Atlanta’s loaded list of pitching prospects, but he burst onto the scene this season while ranking among the minor league leaders in ERA with a 1.73 mark in 35 games - 13 starts - across two levels.
Serving mostly as a reliever in Double-A, Beachy was moved into the Triple-A rotation and went 2-0 with a 2.17 ERA there before being recalled. Now starting for Atlanta in place of the injured Jair Jurrjens, Beachy will be looking to build on a debut in which he allowed three runs - one earned - and four hits in 4 1/3 innings while absorbing a loss at Philadelphia earlier in the week.
The Nationals will counter with someone who has considerably more experience in ageless right-hander Livan Hernandez.
The hefty Cuban shut out Atlanta over eight innings to earn a win on Sept. 14, allowing five hits while walking two and striking out six. But his follow-up to that outing did not go quite as well, as the Houston Astros pounded Hernandez for eight runs - four earned - on eight hits in five innings on Monday.
Hernandez (10-12) has faced the Braves 32 times - 31 starts - in his career, posting a 7-16 mark with a 4.88 ERA. In four starts against them this season he is 2-2 with six earned runs allowed in 24 2/3 total frames.