Jake Irvin and two relievers combined to throw a one-hitter, Dylan Crews and Jorbit Vivas each homered and the visiting Washington Nationals blanked the Atlanta Braves 2-0 on Saturday.
Irvin (2-4) tossed five no-hit innings, striking out seven and walking one before exiting with an injury. Brad Lord allowed one hit across three scoreless frames, before Richard Lovelady threw a perfect ninth to earn his fourth saves and help the Nationals even the weekend series.
Grant Holmes (3-2) threw five innings for Atlanta, allowing two runs on six hits, striking out 10 and walking a pair. Michael Harris II’s seventh-inning single accounted for the only hit for the Braves, who saw their four-game winning streak snapped.
Holmes struck out the side in the top of the first on 14 pitches.
After allowing Daylen Lile’s two-out triple in the second, Holmes struck out Nasim Nunez for his fifth through two innings.
The game was then delayed by rain for 36 minutes.
Washington threatened in the top of the third, as Vivas singled and Keibert Ruiz doubled, before James Wood walked to load the bases with none out. Holmes then got Luis Garcia Jr. to ground into a 1-2-3 double play and struck out Jose Tena to escape the jam.
The Nationals struck in the fourth, as Crews launched his first homer of the year to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
In the fifth, Vivas tacked on with his first home run of the season — a 364-foot lead-off shot to put the Nationals up 2-0. Vivas was the lone player to record multiple hits in the game, going 2-for-4.
Dylan Dodd threw three scoreless innings in relief of Holmes.
After throwing a few warmup pitches ahead of the bottom of the sixth, Irvin motioned for team trainers and manager Blake Butera to come out and then exited after 80 pitches.
Lord took over and tossed a perfect frame.
The Braves finally recorded their first hit in the bottom of the seventh, as Harris laced a leadoff single off Lord. Matt Olson then reached on Vivas’ throwing error.
Lord then retired Ozzie Albies and Dominic Smith, before striking out Austin Riley to leave both runners stranded.
Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna, Jr. fanned in all four of his at-bats.
