WASHINGTON – While Atlanta’s pleasantly surprising journeyman Aaron Harang got back to pitching as he had for most of the season, the Braves kept doing what they’ve done to Stephen Strasburg since the Nationals ace’s ballyhooed arrival in the majors.
They beat him.
The Braves scored first on a home run from B.J. Upton in the fifth inning and blew the game open with five runs in the sixth and seventh innings of a 6-2 win against Washington to avoid being swept at Nationals Park.
Justin Upton had two hits and drove in three runs for the Braves, who won for just the third time in nine games and improved to 2-4 on a nine-game trip that continues at Texas on Friday.
Harang (11-10) gave up just six hits and one unearned run in seven innings, with no walks and nine strikeouts, and improved to 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA in three starts against the Nationals this year.
“It’s big to be able to kind of help flip things around and get us out of here on a good note,” said Harang, who has a 2.13 ERA in nine starts against the Nationals over the past six seasons, and has allowed two earned runs in 20 innings against them this season.
“If we came in here and got swept, it’s going to be a sour note going into the next series and even next week when these guys come to our place. So to be able to go out there and keep our team in the game, and the guys were able to come out and get a couple of runs off Stephen and then jump on the bullpen after that, it’s huge for us.”
Justin Upton had a two-run double in the seventh inning and recorded his 13th game with at least three RBIs this year, second-most in the majors.
“Justin’s been awesome all season,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “He put us on his back tonight and got us some big runs there. And Aaron was great, the bullpen was great. Hopefully this can give us a little push that we needed to get going.”
Harang had the kind of pitching line that Nationals fans typically expect from Strasburg. That is, when he’s facing any team other than the Braves.
Strasburg (11-10) had a solid outing compared to some recent ones against the Braves, allowing seven hits and three runs with no walks and eight strikeouts in six innings. But he fell to 0-3 with a 7.17 ERA in four starts against the Braves this season and remained winless (0-4) in nine starts against them over the past two seasons.
“It’s just one of those things you can’t explain,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves were one game behind Pittsburgh for the second National League wild-card spot pending the outcome of the Pirates’ game Wednesday night. “You can sit here and try to figure it out every which way, but you can’t explain it.”
Besides the Braves, the only other team that Strasburg has a losing record against in more than two decisions is Colorado, and he’s 2-3 with a 3.09 ERA in five starts against the Rockies.
“Why do we hit Strasburg and somebody else shuts us out?” Gonzalez said. “(Brad) Hand got a spot start on Sunday in Miami and we couldn’t even foul a ball off. You just don’t know. And trying to explain it, it wouldn’t sound very smart.”
Strasburg worked out of a jam in the third inning when he struck out Freeman and broke Justin Upton’s bat on an inning-ending groundout. The Braves had put two runners in scoring position with one out via a Jason Heyward single and a Phil Gosselin fielder’s choice and an error on the play.
B.J. Upton broke the scoreless tie in the fifth with his 11th homer and second in as many games off Strasburg. Both Uptons, Freeman and Tommy La Stella homered off Strasburg on Aug. 8, when the he gave up a career-high four homers and seven runs in five innings of a 7-6 Braves win in Atlanta.
Emilio Bonifacio had started the past three games in center field in place of B.J. Upton, who homered in his second at-bat after striking out to end the second inning.
“It might be coincidence that it’s off of him,” said Upton, now 4-for-22 with two homers against Strasburg. “It doesn’t matter who’s out there, you always try to put a good swing on the ball. Any time you score runs and get ahead, that’s a good thing. Aaron had his stuff today. He looked real comfortable on the mound. We knew it was going to be a battle, and we came up with some timely hits today.”
The Nationals got a run on two singles and a passed ball by rookie catcher Christian Bethancourt in the fifth. When the Braves started the sixth inning with a Freeman double, Strasburg was in trouble again and Atlanta capitalized.
Justin Upton’s RBI single put them back ahead, 2-1. Upton was thrown out trying to steal second base, which looked like would be a costly gamble when La Stella followed with a two-out double. But Bethancourt made amends for the passed ball with an RBI single for a 3-1 lead.
The Braves added two runs against left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins in the seventh inning, when Harang and Jason Heyward hit consecutive singles to start the inning. After Phil Gosselin walked, Freeman hit a sacrifice fly and Justin Upton greeted reliever Ryan Mattheus with a two-run double.
The Braves snapped a four-game losing streak at Nationals Park and won for only the third time in their past eight games against Washington, which has a commanding eight-game lead over the Braves in the NL East with only 16 games to play including another three-game series between these teams starting Monday in Atlanta.
The Braves won seven of the first eight games between the teams and have a 10-6 lead in the season series.
Harang had been 1-4 with a 6.91 ERA and .350 opponents’ average in his past five starts before Wednesday, after going 4-0 with a 2.55 ERA and .270 opponents’ average in his previous nine. He said he made some changes after watching his delivery closely on video last week.
“I was flying open a little bit, so the ball wasn’t coming out of my hand like I wanted it to and I was really having to force things,” he said. “So I looked back over some stuff this week, worked on it and threw a couple of bullpens this week to really try to fine-tune things, and went out there and felt good today.”
For Strasburg, his career record against the Braves seems inexplicable. He’s 3-7 with a 4.61 ERA in 16 career starts against the Braves, with two of those wins coming in 2012 in his third and fourth starts against them.
Strasburg has a 37-23 record in 90 starts against everyone else, and the only other team that’s handed him more than three losses is Miami. he has a 7-5 record and 3.94 ERA in 17 starts against the Marlins.
