Hey, the Braves have won six in a row! That’s their longest winning streak at a point where it mattered (the ten-game streak last September doesn’t count…) since pretty much the exact same period in 2024. That streak started on April 14, against Miami, saw them sweep the Astros in Houston, and then return home and win a series against the Rangers before dropping the finale on April 21. This streak also began on April 14 against Miami, and while Philadelphia and Washington are a bit different than Texas, we’re here on April 21 once again. Can the Braves run it to seven games this time?

For this endeavor, the Braves will have Reynaldo Lopez starting against the team that signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2012. Now with his fifth major league team, Lopez will look to continue his potential upswing as he starts in one of his previous stomping grounds. I say upswing because, through four starts, Lopez has had an interesting season so far.

His first two games were pretty horrible peripherals-wise (combined 6/3 K/BB ratio with two homers allowed in 11 innings), but he was only charged with a solo homer in each game and the Braves won both. His next start was the one where the fisticuffs with Jorge Soler transpired, and he had a much better 7/2 K/BB ratio but still allowed a homer before getting the boot after the dramatics, having completed 4 2/3 innings of work. His most recent outing came against the Marlins, and it looked much better with a 6/3 K/BB ratio in five frames, but the Marlins blooped and bled the Braves for four runs, three of which were charged in earned fashion to Lopez. It was his first start of the year where he wasn’t taken deep. (Notably, Dominic Smith’s two bits of heroics this season have both come in Lopez starts.)

So, will Lopez continue improving against a good-swinging Nationals team? Will it be Smith’s heroics that rescue the Braves and push the winning streak to seven? Or, will something else happen? Stay tuned.

Ah, but not before I talk about the Nationals and their starter for a bit. You witnessed their struggles with run prevention if you watched last night’s game. They’ve lost three of four, and have allowed at least seven runs in four of their last five games, a shutout of the Giants on Sunday the main exception (and their first shutout of the year). Drawing the start will be 30-year-old Foster Griffin, who spent the prior three seasons pitching in Japan before returning stateside on a $5.5 million, one-year deal with Washington.

The Nats have won three of Griffin’s four starts, and his line is fine enough (77 ERA-, 107 FIP-, 100 xFIP-) for a guy pitching behind their sticks (he’s also somehow benefited from strand rate stuff in a way that his teammates really haven’t, and haven’t enabled, either). He acquitted himself pretty well against the Phillies (5/0 K/BB, a homer) and the mighty mighty Dodgers (6/3 K/BB, a homer) before struggling against the Brewers (1/3 K/BB, but no homers). But, he had a nice start against the Pirates (7/1 K/BB, also a homer) — though the homer was a game-tying three-run shot from Marcell Ozuna, so… oops.

Griffin is a fairly inefficient junkballer lefty. He tries to get ahead and then get chases far off the plate with a bevy of breaking stuff. Unfortunately, he doesn’t throw very hard or get many whiffs on the various “straight” stuff he throws; further, his oddball, heavy horizontal break cutter, which is his primary pitch, lacks the command to avoid getting mashed, at least so far. The Braves’ righties punishing his cutter and four-seamer, which skitter and skate around the middle of the plate, will be a key to chasing him. That should play pretty well into the Braves’ recent preference to swing early and often, but we’ll see what happens.

Game Date/Time: Tuesday, April 21, 6:45 p.m. EDT

TV: BravesVision (and Nationals.tv if that works for you…)

Streaming: MLB.tv (and Braves.tv, Nationals.tv if you’re in-market, etc.)