WASHINGTON — JR Ritchie allowed a home run to James Wood on his first major league pitch, then rebounded to allow one more run over seven innings and lead the Atlanta Braves over the Washington Nationals 7-2 on Thursday for their eighth win in nine games.Ozzie Albies homered and had four RBIs for the Braves, who broke a 2-2 tie with four runs in the seventh.A 22-year-old right-hander selected 35th overall in the 2022 amateur draft, Ritchie (1-0) struck out seven, walked two and threw 54 of 89 pitches for strikes. He averaged 94.4 mph with 24 fastballs and also mixed in 25 curves, 19 changeups, 10 sliders, seven cutters and four sinkers. Wood homered on a fastball over the middle of the strike zone, his National League-leading 10th home run of the season, and CJ Abrams went deep on a changeup below the strike zone in the fourth. Washington did not get a hit after Daylen Lile’s two-out single in the fourth.Ritchie started the season at Triple-A Gwinnett and went 3-1 with a 0.99 ERA in five starts. Atlanta selected the contracts of Richie and right-hander Carlos Carrasco from the Stripers before the game, optioned right-hander Didier Fuentes to Gwinnett and placed left-h …
