Braves haven't let pitcher injuries slow them down, as Nationals know

Rookie right-hander JR Ritchie could get the start on Sunday when the Atlanta Braves go for the four-game sweep over the visiting Washington Nationals.

Atlanta has won four straight and taken the first three games of the series. The Braves are 7-3 this season against the Nationals, who have lost four in a row, and hold an eight-game lead in the National League East.

Ritchie (1-2, 4.50 ERA) is expected to face Washington right-hander Cade Cavalli (8-4, 3.55) in the series finale.

Ritchie was a last-minute scratch from his start at Triple-A Gwinnett when Atlanta’s Reynaldo Lopez complained of left knee inflammation prior to his expected start Saturday for the Braves. That forced Atlanta to slide Sunday starter Martin Perez up a day and led to Ritchie’s recall. Lopez will be placed on the injured list.

“(Ritchie) will be a candidate,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said after the game. “We’re just trying to talk through all these things, but there’s a little bit of scrambling here.”

Ritchie has appeared in 13 games (seven starts) for Atlanta. His last appearance came July 21 against San Diego when he threw 3 2/3 innings of relief and allowed three runs in an 8-3 home loss.

“We’ve been dealing with this since the first day of spring training and it hasn’t stopped,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said on depth in the starting rotation. “It’s created opportunities for guys. You need to have pleasant surprises, and we’ve had plenty of those.”

They’ve also used plenty of starting pitchers. Thirteen different pitchers have made starts for the Braves.

Cavalli has won five straight decisions and is coming off a six-inning start against Toronto on Tuesday when he allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks, striking out three. During the five-game winning streak over nine contests, Cavalli has worked to a 3.06 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 47 innings.

He has made one career appearance against the Braves. That came on April 23 when he received no-decision after giving up two runs in five innings with 10 strikeouts. It was one of his three double-digit strikeout efforts this season.

Washington has lost six of its last nine and dropped 3 1/2 games behind the race for the final NL wild-card spot. The Nationals need a win on Sunday to avoid matching a season-worst five-game losing streak.

“The guys are frustrated,” Washington manager Blake Butera said. “This is the first time in a while that we’ve been in a spot where we’re chasing a playoff and these guys want to win. They’re frustrated that we’re losing. There’s nothing they want to do more than win some games right now.”

The Washington offense has been dormant in the series. The Nats scored only two runs on Friday and were blanked for seven innings on Saturday before scoring three times to make the final score a more respectable 8-3. The Nationals failed to homer on Saturday for only the third time in their last 29 games.

“It’s really a tough time to have a tough week,” Butera said. “We’ve played pretty well up until this past week. I believe in all these guys in this clubhouse. They’ve done some pretty incredible things up to this point. It’s up to us to right the ship and get this thing going back in the right direction as quickly as we can.”

–Field Level Media