ATLANTA, GA—This afternoon, the Washington Nationals dropped the series finale against the Atlanta Braves, 5-2, and now head to Baltimore to face the Orioles for a weekend series. The Nationals have now lost eight of their last nine games since May 6, 2025, against Cleveland, and now have been outscored 55-22 during that span, resulting in a -33 run differential.

With today’s victory, Atlanta improved to 7-6-1 (.542) in series play and boasts a 5-1-1 (.786) record at Truist Park this season. Next week, the two teams are set to face off in a three-game series at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C..

Atlanta’s AJ Smith-Shawver picked up his third win of the season this afternoon, improving Atlanta’s record to 5-2 (.714) in his starts. He worked six innings for the second time in his last three outings, also doing so on May 5 against Cincinnati. Smith-Shawver allowed just one unearned run on two hits, striking out six-all on his split-finger pitch-and walking two. He has yet to surrender an earned run in 11.1 career innings versus Washington.

“We're trying to get on fastballs today," Martinez said. "He was throwing hard day. Typically he's around 94 to 96 (mph). He was 98 today. So you got to get it ready early, but you got to see the ball in the zone.”

Getting the loss for the Nationals was Trevor Williams were whose record is now 2-5 with an ERA of 5.91. Right-handed pitcher Raisel Iglesias got the save for the Atlanta Braves, his seventh of the season. The Nationals’ record is now 18-17, and they are 8-15 on the road for the season and are 6-11 against teams in the N.L. East.

Williams struggled this afternoon as he pitched 4.1 innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits, throwing 77 pitches with 48 of them being strikes. He has allowed at least four runs in each of his last four starts, beginning April 28 against the New York (NL), marking a streak tied for the third-longest of his career. Prior to this, Williams had a remarkable run of 17 consecutive starts allowing three runs or fewer from September 16, 2023, to April 12, 2025- the longest such streak by a National since Max Scherzer recorded 17 straight in 2019.

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Davey Martinez once again shuffled his infield alignment. With Luis García Jr. placed on the paternity list earlier this week, Martinez shifted José Tena from third base to second and slotted Amed Rosario in at third for the past two games.

That arrangement proved costly a couple of nights ago, as both infielders committed errors on routine plays. In response, Martinez swapped their positions today-and the move paid off early.

“It’s tough to see here during a day game,” Nationals Manager Dave Martinez explained when asked about the change after the game. “We talked about it beforehand. From the start, we thought Tena would be at third base today, just because it’s harder to see over there during the day.”

On the offensive side of the ball, once again, the Nationals struggled to bring runs across the plate this afternoon as they went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. The Nationals failed to record a hit with runners in scoring position in 10 of their 45 games this season, accounting for 22.2% of their contests. Across Major League Baseball, seven teams have experienced this more often, including three National League clubs: Colorado (16 times), Pittsburgh (13), and Atlanta (11).

On the positive side, Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams hit his sixth home run of the season in the top of the eighth against Braves’ left-hander Dylan Lee. Entering today’s game, and over his last seven games, Abrams is hitting .433 (13-for-30) with two doubles, a home run, two RBIs, a stolen base, and three runs scored[1]. He has reached base safely in 18 of his last 19 games, posting a .364/.437/.519 slash line during that stretch.

“We had a chance to go ahead early, and just could get the job done," Martinez said in his post-game press conference. "In those situations, we gotta keep that line moving. We talked about that all the time. Today it didn't happen, and big double plays killed us today.” [The Nationals hit into three double plays this afternoon.

Up next…

The Nationals will travel to Baltimore to begin a three-game weekend series against the Orioles, with left-hander MacKenzie Gore making his first career start at Camden Yards tomorrow night. Gore has been highly effective against Baltimore hitters in his two previous starts, holding them to a .171 batting average (7-for-41) with a double and a home run allowed.