Braves defeat Nationals

WASHINGTON -- The Braves needed something special in the first inning Wednesday night to turn the momentum of this series and this road trip around.

They got it from Jason Heyward. The Braves’ electrifying right fielder stole home on the front end of a double-steal on a play when the Braves were just trying to stay out of a double play.

He made it work to the Braves' advantage, scoring the second of two first-inning runs on the team's first steal of home in 10 years, and the Braves bounced back with a 3-1 win over the Nationals.

“It’s a heads-up play,” Heyward said. “You’re not going to see a lot of it, but when it does happen and you can take advantage of a situation like that it’s always great.”

The Braves evened the series 1-1 and stayed 3 1/2 games ahead of the Phillies, who defeated Arizona 7-1 for their seventh consecutive win. Roy Halladay pitched his eighth complete game of the season.

Tim Hudson did his part for the Braves, allowing one run in 7 2/3 innings to move to 11-5 on the season. He’s 10-1 with a 1.49 ERA in his career against the Nationals.

“It does feel good to know that you have a history of some success against a team, just for your confidence,” Hudson said. “But at the same time, you’ve really got to go out there and give every team respect and every hitter respect because they can hurt you.”

The only run he allowed was on a two-out, broken-bat single by Michael Morse in the fifth inning to score Ivan Rodriguez, who had doubled to lead off the inning. That was the only extra-base hit allowed among the seven hits Hudson gave up.

He didn’t walk a batter until Ryan Zimmerman in the eighth, his final batter of the game. Hudson struck out seven and threw 63 of his 96 pitches for strikes.

He got two big plays off the bat of Adam Kennedy that won the game for him -- first on a nice 3-6-3 double play turned by Troy Glaus to strand a runner at third in the third inning. Later Hudson took a ball off his right shin, but still fielded the ball and got the batter out to strand another runner in scoring position in the fifth.

“He got a shinburger off his shin pretty good, and Huddy is a tough guy,” manager Bobby Cox said. “He stayed in and pitched 7 2/3 in this humidity. I thought that was a pretty good feat.”

The Braves took advantage of having Jonny Venters available as he waits for a decision on the appeal of his four-game suspension. He struck out Adam Dunn to get Hudson out of the eighth inning. Billy Wagner rebounded from back-to-back blown saves to collect his 23rd save of the year.

Martin Prado returned to form with three hits in his first three at-bats, and jump-started the Braves offense like he has since moving into the leadoff spot two months ago. And Chipper Jones drove in two runs for his first multi-RBI game since June 26, a span of 23 games.

It had been since 2000 that the Braves made their last steal of home. It should be no surprise who swiped it.

Heyward has proven arguably the best and most aggressive base runner among the Braves and now leads the team with eight stolen bases.

Brian McCann was running on the 3-2 pitch to Eric Hinske. He stopped and turned back to first to buy some time for Heyward, who took off from third base and arrived home head first just ahead of the throw back from Adam Dunn. McCann stole second on the play.

“Mac was going it was a 3-2 count, I knew he was going,” Heyward said. “[Third-base coach Brian Snitker] Snit just said, ‘Hey be ready and see if they throw all the way through and see what we can do from there.’ And that was all. I broke when [Ian] Desmond threw the ball to Dunn. I got a little further off as they went for Mac more, and once he made the throw, I took off.”