(Washington, D.C.) — April 20, 2026 — The Nationals fell 9-4 to the Atlanta Braves after yet another poor performance from the team’s relief corps.

The Nationals started hot against Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder — who entered the game with one of the best earned run averages in the league — after loading the bases with two walks and a single and scoring two runs on center fielder Jacob Young’s two-RBI single. The Braves battled back to tie the game after a monstrous two-run home run from first baseman Matt Olson, but the Nationals took the lead right back with a home run of their own.

The Braves chased Nationals starting pitcher Jake Irvin from the game in the sixth, and Nationals relief pitchers PJ Poulin and Brad Lord both failed at extinguishing the fire started by Irvin, putting the Nationals in a 7-3 hole. From there, Washington was only able to muster one unearned run, eventually falling 9-4.

“This lineup is really tough to navigate,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “We felt like that was the best spot for [Poulin].”

After previously going 84 at bats without hitting a home run, Lile has now hit two home runs in three days. Lile has tallied six hits across his last four games, showing signs of the player who finished top-five in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2025.

Lile still isn’t walking much, with just two walks in his last seven games, but his increase in slugging has brought his OPS up to 2025 levels in that span. Additionally, Lile has graded out as an average fielder so far this year, with 0 outs above average according to Statcast, looking like his season-end mark will improve on the -8 mark he posted in 2025.

Irvin had his most efficient start of the season on Monday, averaging 13.6 pitches per inning pitched. However, what could have been a masterful outing faded in the fourth inning when a sinker to Olson caught too much plate, resulting in a two-run home run.

Irvin was charged with another earned run before he was removed in the sixth because he hit Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna with a pitch, and he later came in to score. Despite being tagged with the loss, Irvin did lower his walks and hits per innings pitched from 1.47 to 1.29, a significant drop indicative of an excellent performance.

“I thought [Irvin] threw the ball extremely well,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “Outside of the [mistake] to Olson, we felt good about him going back out there for the sixth.”

Though there were no ejections in Monday’s game, the atmosphere in D.C could be intensifying. After Irvin plunked Acuna — who had to be removed from the game — the Braves appeared to retaliate, hitting Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams with a pitch in the ensuing inning. Both dugouts were issued warnings immediately after.

In any series with division rivals, the stakes are expected to feel raised. But after warnings already being given out in the first game of a four-game series, the tension between both clubs should be expected to simmer — and maybe even boil over through the remainder of the series.

Despite scoring four runs, the Nationals’ offense did not succeed at putting pressure on the Braves. The team recorded just three hits and walked only twice.

The last time Washington had a performance that bad was last week, when it was shut out by the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 15, also recording just three hits and two walks in that game.

To make matters worse, almost all of that action came in the first inning, with the Nationals’ lone hit in the game’s final eight innings coming on Lile’s fourth inning blast.

The Nationals will get another shot at the division-leading Braves tomorrow at 6:45 p.m. Foster Griffin will get his fifth start as a National, facing off with Reynaldo Lopez, a familiar face to Nationals fans — back in 2017, the Nationals traded Lopez to the White Sox as part of a package to acquire Adam Eaton, the team’s starting right fielder for the 2019 World Series run.