Gray dazzles on the mound, Riley blasts Nats to win (updated)

These are the games that will be worth watching, no matter the outcome, no matter the Nationals' sinking place in the standings. When Josiah Gray takes the mound the rest of the season, it will amount to something close to must-see TV.

And when another young prospect acquired in last week's trade deadline sell-off delivers a game-flipping homer with two outs in the ninth as Riley Adams did tonight to produce a stunning, 3-2 victory over the Braves? Well, the Nats couldn't draw up a scenario any better than that.

Adams' last-ditch, two-run blast off Atlanta closer Will Smith silenced a Saturday night crowd of 38,300 at Truist Park and completed a three-run rally to snap the Nationals' five-game losing streak.

"It's special," the 25-year-old catcher, acquired last week from the Blue Jays for Brad Hand, said in his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "This is my first time traded to a new team, a new organization. It's different. There's a lot of new faces and new people. It definitely takes a little bit of adjustment, but it's cool to have moments like this to help this team."

Down 2-0 when the final frame began, the Nats got a leadoff walk from Josh Bell, then a pinch-hit double from Ryan Zimmerman to set the stage. Bell would later score on Luis García's RBI groundout, but Zimmerman still remained at third with two outs.

No problem, because Adams, rated as Toronto's top power-hitting prospect but homerless in his first 38 big league plate appearances, pounced on Smith's first pitch and launched it high and deep down the left field line for a moment he'll never forget.

"(Bell) actually gestured at me saying: 'Hey, a single's all it takes. We've got a runner on third, we've just got to get him in,' " Adams recalled. "Honestly, I think that helped, because I wasn't trying to do anything special. I wasn't trying to swing out of my shoes. And I think that's where I have the most success."

Adams hit the ball so high - a launch angle of 41 degrees - neither he nor Major League Baseball's official Statcast measuring devices could immediately locate it. It finally was discovered to have left his bat at 110 mph, landing 412 feet away.

"That was a no-doubter," manager Davey Martinez said. "I jokingly told (fill-in third base coach Henry Blanco) two innings before that, that Riley Adams was going to have a big hit for us in the ninth inning. That was big."

The blast also sprung Kyle Finnegan into immediate action in the bullpen, and the club's new closer responded by retiring the side in the bottom of the ninth for the save, giving his team only its 10th victory in its last 33 games, and only its second win in 45 tries when trailing after the eighth.

"I tell them every day: We've got to play for nine innings. There's 27 outs," Martinez said. "Play hard for 27 outs, you never know what can happen. Keep pushing. And you saw what they did tonight."

The ninth-inning drama came at the end of a game that would've been viewed as a legitimate positive, even if the Nationals had lost, thanks to Gray's 10-strikeout performance over five eye-opening innings.

One of the two top prospects acquired from the Dodgers in last week's blockbuster deal that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to Los Angeles, Gray has done everything within his power to justify the transaction through his first two starts.

In 10 total innings, the 23-year-old has allowed two earned runs. He has issued only three unintentional walks. He has looked poised beyond his age. And tonight in Atlanta, he showed off some electric stuff that had some seasoned Braves hitters looking flummoxed.

"His ability to stay poised," Martinez said when asked what impressed him the most. "Through traffic, he stayed poised. He made his pitches. He looked really sharp again."

Gray was nonetheless in line to take the loss because of what had been a woeful offensive performance by a Nationals lineup that was again with Juan Soto (though the slugger, dealing with a sore right knee, did pinch-hit in the sixth and drew a walk). The late rally took Gray off the hook, but even if he had been charged with the loss, it would have been impossible to be anything other than extremely impressed with him.

The young right-hander was solid in his debut Tuesday against the Phillies, allowing one run over five innings. But he wasn't dominant, striking out only two along the way. This time, he was, and arguably against a more formidable opponent.

Just as he did the previous time, Gray did allow a solo homer, this time to Jorge Soler on a first-inning fastball over the plate. And he allowed one more run to score, though it was unearned because Stephen Vogt (who reached on a strikeout that got away from Adams behind the plate) scored when Andrew Stevenson booted Ozzie Albies' single to center for an error.

But that was one of the few times the Braves made solid contact off Gray. They swung 40 times against him, and they whiffed on 20 of those attempts. That's a remarkably high swing-and-miss rate for any pitcher, whether named Gray or Scherzer.

"The breaking balls, for sure," he said, explaining what led to his success. "Working ahead with them, working in even counts with them. The command of them, and the movement today, was really on point. Everything was on, but the breaking balls, especially."

Evidence of that: Gray induced 12 of his 20 whiffs off his curveball, which shouldn't be confused with his slider, even though that's exactly what opposing batters seem to be doing. It appears to be exceptionally difficult for them to distinguish between the two, because they both come in at near the same velocity (83-86 mph). The curveball, though, has a higher spin rate and more downward break, and that combo made it Gray's most effective pitch tonight.

"It's definitely different, that they are the same speed," Adams said. "But they still have totally different breaks and movements. I think you can use both to attack different hitters' weaknesses."

All 10 of Gray's strikeouts were swinging, none looking. And the first four of them came on the curveball, before he began to turn to his slider and mid-90s fastball to put away hitters later.

When he got Ehire Adrianza to flail at one last curveball in the fifth, Gray had himself his first double-digit strikeout game in three major league starts. Only two other Nationals pitchers have done that this season: Joe Ross, who struck out 11 Dodgers on July 4, and Scherzer, who did it three times.

Gray has light years to go before he deserves to be included in the same sentence as Scherzer, unless it's merely referencing the players involved in the biggest trade in club history. But the early returns are as encouraging as they get. And that can only help soften the blow, if only somewhat, of the events that led to his acquisition in the first place.

Even more so when one of the other players the team just acquired delivers a thrilling victory at the end of the night.

"I started jumping for joy, because we haven't won in a while," Gray said. "And Riley is new to the organization, just like I am. Obviously, it was a great swing, so that was fun to see. And once we got that third out, I jumped for joy. I was the first guy at the top step, waiting for the guys to congratulate them. That really felt good."