The Nationals were just what the free-falling Braves needed.
Yes, the first-place Nationals and their star pitcher Stephen Strasburg.
The Braves snapped an eight-game losing streak by using four home runs to defeat the Nationals 7-6 Friday night in their return to Turner Field. The Braves improved to 7-3 against the N.L. East leaders this season and 25-9 in the past 34 meetings between the teams.
The victory not only ended a dreadful stretch for the Braves. They pulled to within 3-1/2 games of the Nationals after they dropped all eight games of a West Coast road trip to Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle. The Braves and Nationals have three series remaining, starting with Friday’s key matchup.
“It was nice to shake hands,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “It seems like an eternity. The way we are used to winning, eight games is an eternity not being able to celebrate a little bit
“I don’t know about special but it kind of felt weird. It kind of felt that you had to remind yourself that we lost eight in a row because … we haven’t played that bad of baseball.”
The Braves needed to get back on track. Following the series with the Nationals, they host the division-leading Dodgers and A’s as part of their 10-game home stand.
The Braves jumped on Strasburg early with three two-run, two-out homers in just their first two at-bats.
Justin Upton blasted a Strasburg offering to center after Freddie Freeman drew a two-out walk in the first inning. The homer was Justin Upton’s 20th home run of the season.
B.J. Upton deposited a Strasburg offering over the left field fence with Ervin Santana aboard in the second inning for his eighth home run. It marked the second time this season and a major-league record fifth time in their careers that the Upton brothers homered in the same game. Freeman joined the act with a home run to right field, after a Tommy La Stella single, for his 16th of the year. Suddenly the Braves, who hadn’t homered since July 30th, had three round-trippers in two innings.
“I never take it for granted coming to the ball park every day with my brother,” Justin Upton said. “It’s special. I try to take it in every single day but when we do things like this, setting a record, it’s definitely nice. We enjoy playing together.”
La Stella led off the fifth inning with another home run off Strasburg, a solo shot to right for the first of his career, to stake the Braves to a seven-run lead. It would be a hugely important run.
The home runs were career-highs for Strasburg (8-10) in a game (4) and a season (18) as the right-hander made his 100th start. In his last eight starts against the Braves, following his last win against them on Aug. 21, 2012, Strasburg is 0-2 with a 5.06 ERA. He allowed seven earned runs in his five innings of work Friday with two walks and nine strikeouts.
“It’s been so long since I’ve hit one of those things, I couldn’t be too sure,” La Stella said of his homer. “So I wanted to make sure that if nothing else I had a shot at three if it didn’t go over the wall. I saw it at the very end.”
The Nationals tagged Santana for four runs in the sixth inning after Strasburg was removed for a pinch-hitter. Anthony Rendon delivered a three-run homer in the inning before Santana escaped further damage.
The game was delayed for one hour and 11 minutes in the sixth inning by rain. Santana (11-6) left after the delay. He worked six innings and allowed four hits, four earned runs and two walks with four strikeouts.
The Nationals made it even more interesting with a Wilson Ramos home run in the seventh off Anthony Varvaro to pull Washington to within two runs. After a Ramiro Pena fielding error and a Justin Upton throwing error, Asdrubal Cabrera brought in a run with a sacrifice fly. The Braves led 7-0 after five innings and 7-6 after six and a half innings.
Jordan Walden pitched 1-1/3 innings of hitless baseball to set up Craig Kimbrel who pitched the ninth for his 33rd save. The two combined to retire the final seven National batters.
“That’s what we needed to do tonight is to get to them early and let them know that even though we lost eight in a row, we are still here to stay,” Freeman said.
