Murphy and Acuña Torch Washington in a 9-0 Demolition

Atlanta put up nine runs on Washington without allowing a single one, with Sean Murphy and Ronald Acuña Jr. combining for two home runs and seven RBI. The game was effectively over by the seventh inning, and Washington's pitching staff never found an answer.

For three innings, this looked like it might be a pitcher's duel. Grant Holmes threw three hitless innings for Atlanta, and Brad Lord was sharp for Washington — 3.1 innings, just 2 hits, 6 strikeouts, 0 earned runs. The scoreboard was blank, but the tension was one-sided: Atlanta's lineup was loading the bases and waiting for someone to detonate.

That someone was Sean Murphy. In the sixth, Murphy homered to left — 367 feet — scoring Acuña Jr. and Harris II to make it 3-0. Washington's win probability collapsed from 50% to 14% on that single swing. One inning later, Acuña Jr. answered with his own shot, a 379-foot blast to left center that scored Kim and Baldwin and pushed the lead to 6-0. Back-to-back innings, back-to-back home runs from the two men at the heart of Atlanta's order. The story of the night was that Murphy and Acuña didn't just beat Washington — they buried them in a 90-minute window.

Atlanta kept the foot on the gas in the final frames. Austin Riley singled to left in the eighth, scoring Murphy and Yastrzemski to make it 8-0. Murphy added one more in the ninth with a single to left that scored Albies. Final line for Murphy: 2-for-4, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 runs scored. Acuña: 3-for-5, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 runs scored. Riley chipped in 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Atlanta's pitching staff — Holmes, Elieser Hernandez, and Didier Fuentes — combined to allow just 2 hits and zero earned runs across the final seven innings after Lord departed. This looks like the kind of complete performance that separates contenders from pretenders: dominant pitching, timely power, and a lineup that kept adding on when the game was already decided.