The Braves and Nationals played a wild one tonight.
Atlanta scored runs early and often, building a 9-1 lead over Washington after the fourth inning. Then the Nats got to work. They clawed back to make it a one-run game at 11-10 by the bottom of the seventh. The Braves would add another run, eventually taking a 12-10 lead into the ninth.
That’s when the unlikeliest of heroes hit the three-run homer to put the Nats ahead for good. Dan Uggla, who was a spectacular flameout as a Brave, who hasn’t hit over .200 since 2012, and who is still being paid by Atlanta, blasted an 0-2 pitch out of the park to give the Nationals their first lead of the game, which was good enough for the win.
Uggla actually went 3-for-5 in the game with five RBIs, hitting a two-run triple earlier in the night. It must feel great for him, after he was lustfully boo’d by Braves fans throughout the entire series.
Uggla certainly earned his release and the fans’ scorn, never living up to the contract he signed in 2011. But tonight, he was driving nails into the coffin of the team that paid him to go away.