ATLANTA — One night after a one-run escape, the Atlanta Braves gave Truist Park a more comfortable Friday night, beating the Washington Nationals 6–2 in the second game of their four-game set.
ESPN’s game page listed the final as Braves 6, Nationals 2. Postgame National League East tables on the same board showed Atlanta at 64–45 and alone in first, with Philadelphia seven games back and Washington at 55–55 after a second straight loss.
Elder sets the tone
Right-hander Bryce Elder started opposite Washington left-hander Foster Griffin, who entered Friday at 12–2 with a 2.76 ERA across 124 innings, according to the ESPN probable-pitchers table. Elder came in at 6–6 with a 3.96 ERA in 113 2/3 innings.
Box-score lines carried on The Athletic’s Friday game page credited Elder with six innings, one earned run, and three strikeouts. Griffin was charged with six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. Reliever Daysbel Hernández covered three innings with one earned run and four strikeouts in the published line.
MLB.com posted a Friday highlight of Jim Jarvis’ second RBI single in the Nationals–Braves matchup, one of several early-offense clips circulating after the win.
Series context
Thursday’s opener was a different kind of night. The Associated Press recap on ESPN described a 5–4 Braves comeback built on homers from Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski and an Ozzie Albies two-run single. Friday flipped the script: Atlanta’s starter controlled the middle innings and the offense posted a six-run total instead of scraping by on four hits.
The clubs were scheduled to continue the series Saturday at 7:15 p.m. at Truist Park, with ticket listings and league schedule pages showing the four-game set running through Sunday. FOX Sports and Ticketmaster both listed Saturday’s continuation under the same Nationals–Braves banner.
What it means in the East
Entering the weekend, Atlanta’s first-place cushion and recent diet of one-run games had defined late July. A 6–2 win does not rewrite a division race by itself, but it does:
- Push the home series lead to 2–0 against a division foe
- Hand Griffin his third loss of the season after a long stretch near the top of the ERA charts
- Give the bullpen a lighter night than Thursday’s save chain
ESPN’s standings snapshot after Friday still had Miami and Washington knotted at .500, nine and a half games back, with the Mets further adrift in the East.
What Braves fans should watch Saturday
- Whether the lineup keeps stacking early runs or reverts to Thursday’s low-hit, high-leverage profile
- How the rotation assigns the Saturday starter after Elder’s six-inning outing
- Bullpen availability after back-to-back series games and the Mets doubleheader earlier in the week
- Weather: NWS Peachtree City’s Saturday forecast for Atlanta called for showers and a high near 86°F, a factor for early arrivals and outdoor plaza traffic around the ballpark
Full lines and updated pitching splits remain on ESPN’s July 31 game page. League video packages are on MLB.com’s Braves channel.