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Washington Nationals’ lineup for the finale with the Atlanta Braves on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball

Washington’s won 5 of 8 with Atlanta this season, and four of the Nationals’ eight games with the Braves have been decided by one run. Who’s going to take the series finale?

By Patrick Reddington
MLB: Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Before Friday night’s loss, the Washington Nationals had won five straight from the Atlanta Braves in SunTrust Park, outscoring their NL East rivals 45-17 over that stretch.

Davey Martinez and his club have taken 5 of 8 games with the current division leader this season, outscoring them 56-39 overall, with four of the eight games decided by one run.

Last night’s win left the Nationals 5.5 games behind the Braves, in second place in the NL East, with a +1.5 game advantage in the NL Wild Card race.

Martinez talked after the Nats’ 5-3 win in the third game of this weekend’s four-game set in SunTrust Park last night, about putting the previous night’s loss behind them and focusing on the task at hand, or, as he likes to say, going 1-0 each day.

“Like I’ve said before,” he explained, “these guys are coming to play baseball every day.

“Regardless of what happens, we can’t control what happens the night before, let’s play.

“Come out and play and go 1-0 the next day and they’ve been doing that. Like I’ve said, we don’t worry about the future, we worry about now, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

The Nationals have a chance to chip away at the Braves’ lead again tonight, and there are a total of 10 games left with their divisional rivals after that. Is Martinez looking forward to all the baseball left to play against Brian Snitker’s club?

“They’re really fun,” he said. “We’re in the dugout, the guys are chanting, there’s a lot of energy. [Pitching Coach Paul Menhart] wouldn’t let me stand up today. He told me to sit down, and I couldn’t do it.

“I kept standing up. He told me to sit down, I kept standing up, and he said, ‘Stay down!’ I said, ‘I can’t, sorry.’ But it’s fun. It’s within fun. So just we’ve got to keep going. Like I said, we’ve got to keep going, come tomorrow, play tomorrow, play hard, and see what happens.”

What will happen tonight? It’s on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball at 7:05 PM EDT.

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE FINALE WITH THE BRAVES:

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