Major League Baseball
Atlanta 8, Washington 5
When: 6:35 PM ET, Sunday, September 24, 2023
Where: Nationals Park, Washington, District of Columbia
Temperature: 67°
Umpires: Home - Jacob Metz, 1B - Alfonso Marquez, 2B - Ramon De Jesus, 3B - Nate Tomlinson
Attendance: 34501

Kevin Pillar and Forrest Wall homered from the bottom of Atlanta's batting order as the Braves reached a milestone by securing their 100th victory of the season with an 8-5 win against the host Washington Nationals in the second game of a doubleheader Sunday night.

Braves starter Spencer Strider moved closer to a personal milestone after the Braves (100-56) wiped out a three-run deficit. Atlanta has back-to-back seasons with at least 100 wins for the first time since 2002 and 2003.

Strider (19-5) added to his majors-leading win total and strikeout total (274). He gave up four runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

Strider has won in each of his last three starts. Sunday's victory in the series finale puts him in line for a 20-win season with one start remaining later this week. He improved to 3-1 in five career matchups with the Nationals.

Pillar's two-run homer in a four-run fourth inning put Atlanta ahead. It was Pillar's eighth homer of the year. Wall hit his first career home run in the sixth, also a two-run shot.

The Braves picked up a couple of key insurance runs on Orlando Arcia's two-out single in the seventh.

Arcia drove in three runs and Matt Olson went 3-for-5 and scored two runs. Olson also drove in one run, giving him a single-season team-record 133 RBIs.

It marked the home finale for the Nationals (69-88), who finished 34-47 at Nationals Park. Washington won 3-2 in the opener of the day-night doubleheader.

Washington starter Joan Adon (2-4) took the loss, giving up four runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Luis Garcia drove in two Washington runs, with one of those coming on a sixth-inning solo home run for his ninth blast of the season. Keibert Ruiz, who joined Garcia with three hits, drove in the first two runs with a third-inning double to open the game's scoring.

Lane Thomas hit his 27th homer of the season, a one-out long ball in the ninth.

The Nationals, who are aiming to reach the 70-win mark for the first time since 2019, lost three of four games in the series.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Atlanta   Washington
Spencer Strider Player Joan Adon
Win W/L Loss
5.2 IP 4.2
4 Strikeouts 5
7 Hits 5
6.35 ERA 7.71
Hitting
Atlanta   Washington
Matt Olson Player Luis Garcia
3 Hits 3
1 RBI 2
0 HR 1
4 TB 6
.600 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Atlanta 10 2 19 .278 20 8 8 6 1 1
Washington 12 2 20 .300 15 6 5 2 1 1