Acuña, Braves get 1st win; top Nats 7-6 to open doubleheader

WASHINGTON (AP) — Manager Brian Snitker knew Ronald Acuña Jr. and the rest of the Atlanta Braves weren't going to keep struggling to string hits together — and struggling to win just one game.

Sure enough, with Acuña leading the way with a double and a pair of singles, Atlanta snapped a season-starting four-game losing streak Wednesday by edging the Washington Nationals 7-6 in a doubleheader opener.

The Braves put up five runs in the second inning off Erick Fedde (0-1), then wound up barely holding on with a save by Will Smith a day after he gave up a walk-off hit to Juan Soto in a 6-5 loss to Washington.

“I said this morning to the guys: It would be nice to see you put an inning together. ... That was very encouraging,” Snitker said after the Braves avoided their first 0-5 start since 2016. “I knew it was going to happen at some point.”

Smith, Atlanta’s fifth pitcher, didn't have an easy time of things, though.

Trying to protect a 7-5 lead, the first batter he faced Wednesday was Soto. This time, Soto led off the bottom of the seventh by walking, and Starlin Castro drove him in with a double. Another walk put the winning run on base with one out, but Smith got Andrew Stevenson to ground into a double play to end it.

Even though spectators were present — unlike last season, when they were banned —- there still was fake crowd noise piped in, offering an odd, and annoying, hum of a soundtrack.

With nary a cloud interrupting a crystal blue sky, and a temperature of 75 degrees at first pitch and climbing, the teams combined for 11 runs after merely two innings of the first seven-inning game.

The Nationals batted around in the first against Max Fried and scored four; Trea Turner's two-run shot, his second homer in two days, was the highlight.

The...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Acu-a-Braves-get-1st-win-top-Nats-7-6-to-open-16084003.php