Kevin Pillar and Forrest Wall homered from the bottom of Atlanta’s batting order as the Braves reached a milestone by securing their 100th victory of the season with an 8-5 decision against the host Washington Nationals in the second game of a doubleheader Sunday night.
Braves starter Spencer Strider moved closer to a personal milestone after the Braves (100-56) wiped out a three-run deficit. Atlanta has back-to-back seasons with at least 100 wins for the first time since 2002 and 2003.
Strider (19-5) added to his majors-leading win total and strikeout total (274). He gave up four runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Strider has won in his last three starts. A victory in this series finale puts him in line for a 20-win season with one start remaining later this week. He improved to 3-1 in five career matchups with the Nationals.
Pillar’s two-run homer in a four-run fourth inning put Atlanta ahead. It was Pillar’s eighth homer of the year. Wall rapped his first career home run in the sixth, also a two-run shot.
The Braves picked up a couple of key insurance runs on Orlando Arcia’s two-out single in the seventh.
Arcia drove in three runs and Matt Olson went 3-for-5 and scored two runs. Olson also drove in one run, giving him a single-season team-record 133 RBIs.
It marked the home finale for the Nationals (69-88), who finished 34-47 at Nationals Park. Washington won 3-2 in the opener of the day-night doubleheader.
Washington starter Joan Adon (2-4) took the loss, lasting 4 2/3 innings and charged with four runs on five hits.
Luis Garcia drove in two Washington runs, with one of those coming on a sixth-inning solo home run for his ninth blast of the season. Keibert Ruiz, who joined Garcia with three hits, drove in the first two runs with a third-inning double to open the game’s scoring.
Lane Thomas moved to 27 home runs on the season after his one-out long ball in the ninth.
The Nationals, who are aiming to reach the 70-win mark for the first time since 2019, lost three of four games in the series.
–Field Level Media