The Braves chalk up the first win of the major league season with a 2-0 victory over the Nationals. Both teams collected five hits and a double, but Atlanta added a Jason Heyward home run.
Braves pitchers struck out nine Nationals, included six by Derek Lowe in 5 2/3 innings. Lowe doesn’t usually come across as a power pitcher. Livan Hernandez continues to live by great control as he did not walk a batter in 6 1/3 innings, but allowed four of the Braves five hits. He threw 66% strikes.
Washington should give a free ticket to any fan who stayed awake through that thing. They sure won’t sell many more tickets this year. The kind of game that helped make football the national pastime.
Really makes no difference because the Nats are so terrible, but why is a glacial starter like LaRoche hitting at five instead of seven or eight? He predictably screwed up the one scoring chance his lousy team had all game.