Smith-Shawver's night cut short at four innings

Right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver lasted four innings in the Braves' 9-5 loss to the Nationals on Tuesday, allowing five runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts. He threw 86 pitches, 57 for strikes, in his fourth Major League start since returning from the injured list last month.

Smith-Shawver came out firing, building 19 pitches in the first inning and topping out at 97.5 mph on his fastball. But the early velocity faded even as the outing went on: his four-seamer averaged 97.4 mph in the first inning, 95.6 mph in the third and 93.8 mph in the fifth. For the ballgame, his average fastball was 96.1 mph, closer to the 96.8 mph he averaged in Triple-A than the 95.0 mph he ran against the Twins a week earlier.

The second inning proved the trouble spot. Smith-Shawver gave up four runs on three hits and two walks, allowing the Nationals to take an early 4-1 lead. In the third, he conceded a leadoff home run to Yohandy Morales, the Nationals' rookie who was making his Major League debut. The righty did bounce back to close out his last inning, though, retiring the side on 1-2-3 in the fourth - having already used 13 pitches in that final frame, the checker earned himself a good night on a high note.

Afterward he summed up his own night plainly.

"Obviously, I'm not thrilled with all the results," Smith-Shawver said. "I'm happy with mostly how the heater and splitter are coming out. I think it comes down to execution and just getting outs."

He agreed that the execution was the theme.

"I think it's just part of execution," he said. "I think I got to some good and bad counts, and kind of just left some pitches up that were hittable. And yeah, it just comes down to executing pitches I feel like."

He was candid about his frustration.

"I gotta go get outs," he said. "I can't walk guys, can't get behind in counts, and I gotta make them hit it to [the defense] a few times." He added, "It's not very competitive."

The right-hander's ERA sits at 7.13 over his four starts since returning. When asked about his priorities for the remainder of the season, Smith-Shawver pointed straight at the team's goals.

"It's trying to win games," he said. "I think once I got called up it's, 'I'm healthy, so it's time to go get outs and go try to go get wins and clinch this thing.' So it's just frustrating. Frustrating results."

The manager's approach

Braves manager Walt Weiss was not ready to talk about Smith-Shawver's possible role come October.

"No, that's too far away," Weiss said. "This is all day-to-day stuff with pretty much everything. We've got six starters. [Reynaldo] López working his way back, so you got numbers there. But no, it'll be day to day with the rotation."

Reflecting on the loss, he did not panic.

"Our record is what it is," Weiss said. "We've been really good this year. But every once in a while, you have games like this. It's just, I think, magnified when you get to September and you're in a pennant race. So we'll play better moving forward, but tough one tonight."

The Braves hand off to Grant Holmes for Wednesday's series finale against the Nationals, before opening a four-game set in Philadelphia against the second-place Phillies this weekend.

Outfielder Michael Harris II, who hit his second home run in as many games with a two-run homer in the eighth, kept a composed outlook.

"As long as we win games, we control our destiny," Harris said. He added, "Obviously, the team that is right behind us, we play them next. And yeah, it's a key series coming up. So as long as we handle business, that's all we can do."

Around the league

Around the league on Tuesday, several starting pitchers had eventful evenings.

Giants' Logan Webb was lit up for nine runs in two-plus innings against the Pirates, the second-shortest start of his career. It was the sixth time in 202 career starts that he failed to get more than nine outs, though three of those have come since the start of July, with the other blowups at Coors Field (seven runs in three innings on July 3) and against the Red Sox (five runs in 2⅔ innings in his previous start). The rest of his work has been productive, including an ERA of 2.83 in August (nine runs in 28⅔ innings). All nine hits he allowed were singles, and five came on non-hard-hit balls. He retired zero of the seven batters he faced in the third. The Giants avoided a loss, and the righty became just the second starter this year to give up nine runs and not lose, joining the Royals' Seth Lugo. The last Giants starter to do so without losing was Kevin Correia on April 20, 2004.

In another game, Randy Dobnak allowed six runs in six innings and took the loss against the Marlins, falling to 2-3. He gave up seven hits, walked two, and struck out six. He'd been in decent shape early – just three runs in the first six innings – before allowing three hits to begin the seventh, which led to three more runs charged to him. He has a 2.65 ERA (though his xFIP is 4.15) and is lined up to face the Blue Jays at home on Sunday.

Tyler Phillips had it easier, earning the win in the Marlins' 6-3 victory over the Royals with five scoreless innings. He scattered one hit, two walks, and struck out four while improving to 4-6. That was his first scoreless appearance since July 8 against the Mariners, when he also tossed five scoreless frames. In August, he had a 3.86 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 21 innings over five appearances. He's lined up to face the Cubs at home on Sunday.