Ronald Acuña Jr. continued to swing a hot bat and Travis d’Arnaud delivered a key double in a second inning of five runs that propelled the Braves to their first win of the season, a 7-6 win over the Nationals in the first game of Wednesday afternoon’s doubleheader in Nationals Park.
Ozzie Albies’ first hit of the season – a first basehit in the seventh inning – put him in position to score on a wild pitch by Wander Suero. The insurance run proved significant when Will Smith gave up a Starlin Castro RBI-double in the bottom of the same frame before recording his first save in this seven-inning game.
“Obviously, I wasn’t necessarily as effective as I wanted to be,” said Fried. “But I am happy that the team was able to pick me up and that I was able to take the victory.”
After a two-run homer by Trea Turner marked Washington’s four runs first, the Braves reacted against Nats starter Erick Fedde. Fried followed the double by Ender Inciarte with a run-scoring infield single, then moved when Acuña singled in another run.
Acuña produced his sixth career multi-homer game on Tuesday and went 5-for-9 with three extra basehits in the first two games of this series. His opening double allowed him to score on a passed ball in the first, and his single in the second led to him sprinting home when d’Arnaud hit the double off the wall to the left in the middle.
“That was very encouraging to see that we kept an inning going with exactly the way we swing the bat,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker. “So that was good. I knew it was going to happen at some point.”