Braves vs. Nationals (and Giants) series recap: Holding steady and getting ready for Philadelphia

Well, if the Atlanta Braves wanted to enter the huge weekend series in Philadelphia on a serious roll, they’ll have to just settle for a slight roll instead. The Braves came into this week having won seven straight games but the streak came to a screeching halt at the hands of some unlikely opposition.

Well, maybe it was likely considering how the season series has gone against one team and how the other team usually tends to win their games but needless to say, the Braves won’t be scorching-hot heading into their big four-game series against Philadelphia. They did finally show some reasons to be optimistic about being able to get a positive result this weekend and let’s look into this week’s first three games to figure out why that is the case:

Well, there wasn’t too much positive to take away from this game. The San Francisco Giants are in the midst of what’s shaping up to be their worst season since 2017 and yet, they’ll be leaving the 2026 season with fond memories of smacking the Braves around. This made it five out of six wins for the Giants against the Braves in 2026 and it had all the hallmarks of a 2026 Braves/Giants game.

Rafael Devers home run? Check. Bryce Elder getting beat up by the Giants once again? Check, again. San Francisco essentially setting the tone for the entire contest? One more time, check. Devers essentially picked up where he left off against the Braves earlier on this season by hitting his fourth homer in sixth games against Atlanta to make it 1-0 in the first and while the Braves actually got out to a 2-1 lead, Elder was unable to keep the dam from bursting against San Francisco.

Jonah Cox frustratingly bunted in a run to tie the game in the fifth inning and then San Francisco capitalized on the Braves squandering a bases loaded opportunity with two out in the bottom of the fifth by immediately jumping on Elder in the sixth. Osleivis Basabe hit his fourth dinger of the season to lead off the sixth and by the time the smoke had cleared in the sixth, Bryce Elder and Dylan Lee were responsible for the Giants having a four-run inning. Jonah Cox then proved that he could hurt the Braves with the long ball as well, as his ninth inning dinger (also his fourth of the season) made it a 7-3 game and Atlanta was unable to respond after the breakout inning for the Giants.

Well, if there’s one team that you usually don’t want to end up in a slugfest with, it’s the Nationals. That’s especially been the case for the Braves lately, as they’ve had some real struggles to put together some sustained offense away from Truist Park. The good news is that Atlanta did put five runs on the board in this one, which was the most that they’d scored in a single game away from Truist Park (or a neutral site) since July 24. On top of Atlanta scoring five, Ha-Seong Kim picked up three hits in this one! This was Kim’s first multi-hit game since September 17 of last season and needless to say, the Braves would gladly use any type of real production that they can get from Kim down the stretch.

The bad news is that this was another rough day for the pitching staff, as the 2026 Nats fired off one final salvo at the Braves in a season that’s been very productive for them at the plate. AJ Smith-Shawver was only able to get through four innings in this one and by the time he left, it was a 5-2 game in favor of Washington.

The Nats then pulled away against the debuting Blake Burkhalter and reliever Brent Suter, as Burkhalter surrendered a sacrifice fly to Brady House and then Suter got knocked around for three runs (including an error) in order to make it a 8-2 ballgame at the time. The three-run flurry that Atlanta delivered in the eighth inning was encouraging considering how tough it’s been for Atlanta to put crooked numbers up in any given inning on the road lately, but it was simply a case of putting lipstick on a pig as the Nationals rolled to a 9-5 win.

It took a while but we finally got to see the Braves really hammer an opposing team for once — and on the road, no less! Things remained scoreless in this one until the sixth inning, as Grant Holmes looked very sharp in a rain-shortened outing and then the rest of the bullpen picked up the baton and ran with it in dominating fashion for the rest of the way. Atlanta only gave up two hits in this contest and it was definitely nice to see Elieser Hernández continue to come up big in yet another strong multi-inning appearance.

The pitching staff’s strong performance bought Atlanta enough time to finally start doing some real damage away from home. The sixth inning started with Ronald Acuña Jr. getting on with a single and then stealing his 20th base of 2026 but it only got more exciting from there. Riley Cornelio intentionally walked Michael Harris II in order to try to get Sean Murphy with two outs. That ended up being a mistake, as Murphy crushed one for a three-run shot that broke the deadlock.

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History was then made in the seventh, as Ronald Acuña Jr. finally cracked his 200th career home run in order to push Atlanta into comfortable position at 6-0. Acuña is now the fastest player to join the career 200-200 Club and hopefully he’ll be able to keep the homers coming now that he’s finally moved past that particular milestone.

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Anyways, Austin Riley cashed in a bases-loaded opportunity in the eighth with a liner to left that brought home two to make it 8-0 and then Sean Murphy padded his stats with an RBI single off of José Tena, who is not a pitcher. This one ended 9-0 and it was sure nice to see the Braves bring the lumber away from Cobb County, for once.

Atlanta also got a bit of good news shortly after their win on Wednesday as the Diamondbacks held on to a 1-0 win over the Phillies, which ensured that the Braves will be heading into Philadelphia with a four-game lead. Hopefully we’ll see the Braves play with some confidence in that series — Atlanta has been the top dog in the NL East all season and now’s as good of a time as ever to really confirm it and to do so in their closest pursuer’s own stadium would be huge.

In the mean time, the only real takeaways from these three games is that we can at least have some hope that the offense may have brought the bats with them on this road trip. It had been far too long since we’d seen the Braves actually do some real damage at the plate on the road and that’s going to have to continue going forward since Atlanta will be playing more games away from Truist Park this month than in their humble abode in Cobb County. While there’s also a bit of a concern that this could just be a case of the Braves beating up on a Nationals pitching staff that’s been vulnerable all season, I don’t think anybody would complain if Atlanta took that confidence from this series in Washington and carried it over to the big one in Philadelphia.

Also, how about Ha-Seong Kim? It almost feels as if a switch has turned on for the guy with the way that he’s ben productive over the past week. Kim now has six hits in his past six games, which is wild considering that he had five hits in just 31 games before then. At the risk of sounding like Chip Caray, getting a productive Ha-Seong Kim back would almost be like picking up a player after the trade deadline. As well as Mauricio Dubón has played all season, this team was designed for Ha-Seong Kim to play a crucial role. If he can step up for the rest of the way then that just makes this Braves lineup tougher to deal with going forward.

Now, it’s time for Atlanta to enjoy an off-day before the biggest series of the season gets underway. Atlanta’s going to have four pitchers that they’re confident in starting for them in Philadelphia, with Chris Sale, Martín Pérez, Tyler Mahle and Bryce Elder going for them in that order. The pitching has proven that they can keep any given lineup quiet on any given day. The offense is finally beginning to show some real signs of life away from home. There’s nothing left but to take care of business and hopefully we’ll see the Braves make it happen once it’s all said and done on Monday evening.