How the Washington Nationals pitching staff dominated an elite Braves lineup

· Yahoo Sports

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - MAY 23: Richard Lovelady #55 of the Washington Nationals celebrates after a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on May 23, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Brett Davis/Getty Images) | Getty Images

For most of this season, the Nationals formula for success has been scoring runs in bunches. After all, they have scored the most runs in all of baseball. However, with the bats being quiet this weekend in Atlanta, the Nats had to find a different way to win. They did just that by outpitching the Braves en route to a series win.

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It was a true team effort from the pitching staff, but the rotation was especially elite. If you count Miles Mikolas’ bulk relief appearance, Nats starters went 16 innings without allowing a run to the Braves offense. Given the firepower Atlanta has, that is extremely impressive. Mikolas, Jake Irvin and Foster Griffin all stepped up in a huge way.

Sure, the Nats have allowed the most runs in all of baseball, but the pitching staff has been very solid the past month. Since April 25th, Nationals pitchers have posted a 4.01 ERA. That is not elite by any means, but it is good enough with this offense. Fans have been wondering what this Nats team would be like with average pitching, and well we have seen it for the last month. The Nats are 16-11 since April 25th, when they started getting that solid pitching. 

While the Nats have allowed the most runs in the league, not all of that is on this pitching staff. The Nats have a 4.80 team ERA, which is actually only the fifth worst in the league. A big reason they lead the league in runs allowed is their leaky defense. We are still seeing plenty of defensive miscues, but hopefully that can improve like the pitching has.

The last two games of the Braves series were particularly excellent for the pitching staff. After a rough extra inning loss on Friday, where the bullpen could not hold on, the Nats needed a good start from Jake Irvin. That is exactly what they got, with the big right hander firing 5 hitless innings with 7 strikeouts. Irvin’s curveball had Braves hitters fighting for their lives and the fastball velocity was up.

However, Irvin had to come out of the game with an injury after 5 innings. With a depleted bullpen, Blake Butera had to rely on Brad Lord to give them length. As he usually does, Lord came through for his team, firing off three scoreless innings. Yesterday, I wrote about how important Lord is to this team and how much I love his no-nonsense style on the mound. 

Richard Lovelady got a big save on Saturday to finish that game off. Lovelady saw action in all three games this series. He was mostly excellent. In his first two outings, Lovelady threw two clean innings, one as an opener and the other as a closer. He came in to try and close out the finale as well. Lovelady got the ground ball he needed to end the game, but Nasim Nunez booted it. Eventually, he was pulled for Orlando Ribalta, who saved the day.

Lovelady has been a huge part of this bullpen since being picked up through the waiver process from the Mets. Since joining the Nats, Lovelady has a 1.72 ERA in 16 outings. Sure, he sometimes puts himself in messy situations, but he has been able to make the big pitch when he has needed it more times than not.

One of the heroes of yesterday’s win was Foster Griffin. As we all know, Griffin got off to an electric start before his ERA took a beating in his last two outings. The 30 year old southpaw got back on track in a big way yesterday. He fired 6 scoreless frames in the rain, in a badly needed bounceback outing. Griffin’s command was on point yesterday, rarely missing in the middle of the plate with any of his 7 pitches.

This was an outing that Griffin needed to show the world that he is no fluke. After coming over from Japan, he flummoxed hitters through his first 8 outings. However, it looked like the league was starting to figure him out in his previous two starts. Yesterday, Griffin showed that when he is locating, there are not many answers against him.

Location and execution was key all weekend. Mikolas, Irvin and Griffin were all locating at an extremely high level. That helped them carve through a Braves lineup that has been excellent for most of the season. With Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson slumping, the Nats may have caught the Braves at the right time, but the Nats pitchers are also part of the reason for these slumps.

The bullpen was more up and down than the rotation this weekend, but in 2 of the 3 games, they got the job done. Clayton Beeter looked extremely sharp in his first two outings off the IL. The previously mentioned Lovelady and Lord were also key parts of this series win.

However, a big shoutout has to go to Orlando Ribalta, who saved the day yesterday. He came into a bases loaded, one out situation with a one run lead. The Cuban righty was able to make the lead stick and win the game for the Nats. Ribalta struck out Friday’s walk off hero Chadwick Tromp, before getting Acuna to break his bat and roll a grounder to first to give the Nats the series win.

Ribalta has been very impressive this season. He has a 2.31 ERA in 12 outings, and has gotten his team out of some big jams lately. In my opinion, Ribalta has the best stuff of anyone in the bullpen. His fastball is in the upper 90’s, his slider is sharp and he also will throw a nasty changeup at times. The key for him this season has been improved strike-throwing.

In the past, control has been a big issue for the 6’7 right hander. However, he has been throwing a lot of strikes this season. His walk rate has gone from 14.2% to a much more manageable 8.5%. With his stuff, Ribalta is tough to hit when he is throwing strikes. Outside of a couple outings where he allowed some unlucky hits and briefly lost his command, Ribalta has been money.

At the beginning of the season, this pitching staff was a massive question mark. It felt like Blake Butera did not have any answers to turn to, but that has changed. This pitching staff is not elite by any means, but they have been solid for about a month now. They picked up the offense in a big way this weekend, but most of the time, average pitching will be good enough with this lineup.

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