Henderson was available out of the pen when the Brewers called him up Tuesday, but since he was never needed, the team opted to give him the start over Tyler Alexander today with great results. Using his fastball and changeup the vast majority of the time, he finished with 13 whiffs and a 29% CSW. Henderson isn’t viewed a big upside guy, but the changeup is strong and he’s not going to walk many. He should be able to help the Brewers, even if he’s not a mixed-league guy. Still, with Tobias Myers about to return from the IL, it’s possible he’ll head back to Triple-A now.

Wood just keeps getting better. He nearly started the Nationals scoring in this one when he roped a first inning single 113.5 mph, but he may have hit the ball too hard as CJ Abrams was thrown out at the plate. Later on, he scorched a double down the line to pull his Nationals ahead in the eighth inning. In all, he had three batted balls hit harder than 107 mph. That was only the 17th time all season a player has hit three balls that hard in a single game. Wood joined Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Addison Barger as the only players to do so more than once so far this season. He is a budding superstar.

Things became tense for a moment when Marcel Ozuna came up with the tying run in scoring position against Finnegan, but he got him to pop up to center field to end the threat. Amazingly, his 13 saves trail only Robert Suarez for the league lead after the Nationals left him on the free agent market until the precipice of spring training.

Parker left this game with only two runs on his ledger, but with two men on base. Then, Jackson Rutledge came in to face Marcell Ozuna and promptly allowed a two-run double, to close Parker’s line. Ozuna already had two hard-hit balls in his only two at-bats against Parker anyway who didn’t have his best stuff in this one. He usually leans on his curveball for both soft contact and swings-and-misses. Here, it didn’t force a single whiff and found itself in the middle of the plate far too often. He’s scheduled to face the Braves again next time out.

Ozuna’s two-run double gave the Braves valuable insurance pushing their lead from one to three runs in the fifth inning. In all, he had three hard-hit balls out of the four he put in play, but that last one may have been the most critical as he hit a lazy fly ball for the final out with the tying run in scoring position. He’s been Atlanta’s most consistent hitter to this point in the season with an .868 OPS.

Elder certainly pitched well enough to win this game. He left with a 4-1 lead that his bullpen gave up soon thereafter. Alas, Elder worked his usual sinker, slider combo well and forced 10 ground balls on the 16 total balls in play hit against him. He’ll look to build on this start next time out when he’s scheduled to face the same Nationals again.

The last hit made it a 4-3 game in the eighth. Peña has 15 hits during his current seven-game hitting streak that’s raised his average from .275 to .315.