September has arrived, and the 2026 Braves still haven’t found the version of themselves that puts the whole thing together. There have been flashes of loud offense and stretches of sharp pitching, but rarely at the same time for long.
That disconnect showed up again Tuesday night in Washington, where Atlanta dropped a 9-5 decision to the Nationals after wasting chances and letting the game slip away early. The loss followed the frustrating finish to August against the Giants, and it also featured memorable major league debuts for two Nationals who made the Braves pay.
AJ Smith-Shawver never found a clean rhythm in his four innings. He opened by working around a scoreless first, but not before the Nationals made him labor.
CJ Abrams singled on an infield hit and stole second, Dylan Crews struck out, Brady House walked, and Daylen Lile forced a runner before stealing a base himself. Then Yohandy Morales, in his first MLB plate appearance, struck out swinging to end the inning.
Atlanta briefly grabbed the lead on Ozzie Albies’ two-out solo homer in the second, but Smith-Shawver couldn’t hold it. Ha-Seong Kim made a strong play for the first out, then the inning unraveled.
Harry Ford drew a one-out walk, a ball off Matt Olson’s glove rolled into right field for a double, and Abrams followed with an RBI single to put Washington ahead. Crews walked, a mound visit followed, and House doubled in two more runs right after that.
Lile then struck out looking, but the Nationals were up 4-1 after two.
The Braves had some traffic of their own and even got production from the bottom of the order, with Brewer Hicklen and Ha-Seong Kim both reaching multiple times, but they couldn’t cash in enough against Jake Irvin. Atlanta twice had the eight- and nine-hole hitters on base with no outs - once in the third and again in the fifth - and only managed to scratch across a run in the third when Drake Baldwin doubled home a run to make it 4-2. The next three batters went down in order, stranding runners at second and third.
The fifth inning offered another opening, and another letdown. With two on and no outs again, Jared Simpson, making his MLB debut, got Baldwin to ground into a double play.
Washington kept adding on, and the Nationals got a debut moment of their own in the third when Morales launched his first MLB hit for a homer to make it 5-2.
Smith-Shawver’s final line told the story: four innings, six hits, five earned runs, three walks, five strikeouts, and one home run. His ERA climbed above 7.
Victor Mederos followed and, aside from a leadoff walk and a two-out single in the fifth, kept the game from getting worse. He was the only Braves reliever to throw a scoreless inning.
Atlanta also got a debut of its own when Blake Burkhalter took the ball for the sixth. The 25-year-old right-hander walked into a tense spot and quickly had to work through it.
Young singled, advanced on a wild pitch, Abrams walked, and Young moved to third on a Crews lineout before scoring on House’s sacrifice fly. Burkhalter then recorded his first big league strikeout on a foul tip into Baldwin’s glove, and it came against Daylen Lile, the reigning NL Player of the Week.
Brent Suter handled the seventh, but the Nationals kept pressing. Morales doubled to open the frame, Andrés Chaparro and Ford were retired, then Ford’s grounder moved Morales to third. He scored on Suter’s pickoff error, and Young added another RBI single to push the lead to 8-2.
Irvin was out after four, but the Washington bullpen wasn’t nearly as generous as Atlanta may have hoped. Simpson threw three no-hit innings in his debut and shut the door long enough to keep the Braves in a deep hole.
Atlanta finally made some noise in the eighth. Ha-Seong Kim opened with his third single of the night.
Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr. followed with force outs, and Acuña advanced to third on defensive indifference before scoring on a wild pitch from Clayton Beeter. Matt Olson then doubled to center and came home on Michael Harris II’s homer to left-center, trimming the margin to 8-5.
That was as close as it got. Suter stayed on for the eighth, got two outs, then allowed a walk to Lile, a single to Morales, and another single to Chaparro that made it 9-5.
The Braves couldn’t mount anything in the ninth against Orlando Ribalta. Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, and Hicklen were retired in order, and that was that.
Atlanta left ABS challenges unused in key spots, watched balls keep sneaking past defenders for a .478 BABIP, and spent most of the night looking overmatched against an inferior opponent. The silver lining, if there was one, was the continued hope for a Ha-Seong Kim rebound.
The two-game set wraps up Wednesday afternoon at 1:05 pm ET.
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