Matt Olson homered twice, Spencer Strider pitched six scoreless innings and the visiting Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 7-1 on Saturday.
Ronald Acuna Jr. and Marcell Ozuna also homered for Atlanta, and Orlando Arcia had three hits and scored twice.
Strider (1-0), who finished second in the 2022 National League Rookie of the Year voting, was dominant in his sophomore season debut, limiting Washington to three hits and striking out nine batters while walking three.
Keibert Ruiz had two hits, including a home run, for Washington, which has scored three runs in two games. The Nationals had five hits and were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
Nationals starter Josiah Gray (0-1) allowed five runs on seven hits — including three home runs — in five innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Acuna led off the game with a line-drive homer to left on an 0-2 pitch. Olson followed with a fly-ball home run to right center to make it 2-0 just two batters in.
Gray allowed a major-league-high 38 home runs in 2022.
Arcia opened the third with an infield single and went to third on Austin Riley’s two-out base hit. Gray threw a wild pitch on a 3-2 count to Ozzie Albies and Arcia raced home. Riley scored on a single to center by Michael Harris II and the Braves led 4-0.
The Nationals put runners on first and second with one out in the third, but Luis Garcia grounded into a double play.
Ozuna made it 5-0 when he smacked Atlanta’s third homer of the day with one out in the fourth.
The Braves padded their cushion in the seventh. Arcia singled leading off against Thaddeus Ward, who was making his major league debut, and with one out, Olson homered to left center on a 2-2 pitch and the Braves’ lead was 7-0.
Olson has four hits and a walk in the first two games of the series.
–Field Level Media
