Braves cruise past Nationals 7-2 behind JR Ritchie’s first win

JR Ritchie’s debut began with a jolt and ended with a statement. After James Wood turned the right-hander’s first major league pitch into a home run, Ritchie regrouped and carried the Atlanta Braves through seven innings in a 7-2 win over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

The Braves keep winning in the same ways contenders usually do: steady starting pitching, timely extra-base damage and enough offensive depth to break games open without leaning on the bullpen. Atlanta improved to eight wins in its past nine games and finished a 6-1 road trip, a stretch that underscored how repeatable the club’s formula has become. Washington, by contrast, looked like a team still searching for consistency, falling to 11-15 overall and 3-10 at home as another uneven night turned into another missed chance to keep pace.

Ritchie, the Braves’ 35th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, allowed five hits and two earned runs while striking out seven and walking two. The 22-year-old opened his career by surrendering Wood’s NL-leading 10th home run, but he allowed only one more run the rest of the way. That made him the first Braves pitcher to give up two runs or fewer over seven-plus innings in a major league debut since Matt Wisler in 2015.

Washington’s Cade Cavalli also gave his club a chance. He struck out a career-high 10 batters, walked none and held Atlanta to two runs over five innings, a strong line that still was not enough once the Braves found another gear. The game was tied 2-2 before Atlanta broke through with four runs in the seventh, then added three more to put the result out of reach.

Ozzie Albies drove the offense with four RBIs, including a solo homer in the ninth, while Michael Harris II drove in two runs before leaving in the seventh with left quadriceps tightness. Cionel Pérez took the loss and dropped to 1-3. In 2 hours, 32 minutes, before 14,613 fans on a 78-degree, partly cloudy afternoon with a light wind in from left field, Atlanta turned a shaky opening into another clean finish, the sort of road win that separates stability from the kind of inconsistency Washington keeps producing.