Nats explode for five runs in 8th, beat Braves 8-4
Washington sent 11 men to the plate and scored five runs in the eighth to knock off the Braves 8-4. The victory completes the series sweep and extends their winning streak to a season-high six games.
Aaron Boone's 3-run homer, off Braves reliever Elmer Dessens, turned out to be the game-winner. On Dessens first pitch, Boone failed to lay down a sac bunt and it's a good thing because he homered on the next pitch to put the Nationals up 6-4.
The home run, his sixth this year, was the first for Boone since he went deep off Randy Wolf in San Diego on May 27th.
One out later, Emilio Bonifacio doubled and scored on Wil Nieves' RBI single to give Washington a three-run cushion. The RBI was the first for Nieves since August 7th.
After Willie Harris singled, his third hit of the game, Cristian Guzman drove in Nieves with an RBI single to make it 8-4.
Collin Balester went seven good innings, but one pitch cost the rookie a win. He gave up four runs on six hits and three walks in seven innings.
Atlanta jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Balester in the first on Omar Infante's two-out RBI single. Infante drove in Martin Prado, who doubled, but Infante was thrown out by Wil Nieves at second when the throw from Ryan Langerhans went to the plate.
Washington took the 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on Elijah Dukes RBI ground out and Aaron Boone's RBI infield single. Willie Harris led off with a single and Cristian Guzman doubled to put runner in scoring position with nobody out.
Dukes' hit a slow grounder to short and was called out on a bang-bang play at first. Harris scored with the tying run. Boone beat out a hit to third and Guzman scored the go-ahead run.
The Braves jumped back in front on Yunel Escobar's 3-run blast in the fourth. Balester walked the lead-off hitter and allowed a single before Escobar launched a bomb to left, giving Atlanta a 4-2 lead.
Harris got a run back in the home half of the inning on a bloop single to left that scored Emilio Bonifacio, who walked with one-out and moved to second when Braves starter Jair Jurrjens walked Balester with two outs.
Atlanta was knocking on the door in the eighth, trying to add an insurance run on Garrett Mock. Mock gave up a one-out double to Prado and a wild pitch moved him to third. Infante walked to put runners on the corners, but Mock got a strike out and fly out to end the threat.
Postgame Notes
Washington's 6-game win streak is the longest current winning streak in the majors, and the club's longest since a 6-game run, July 31-August 5, 2007. It was the Nationals 22nd come-from-behind-win, 3rd when trailing after 7 innings.
With the win in today's series finale, Washington has posted back-to-back sweeps in the District for the first time since going 3-0 vs. Cincinnati and St. Louis, July 31-August 5, 2007.
Aaron Boone drove in four runs today. It's the most RBI he's had in a game since May 18, 2007 at Tampa when he was a member of the Marlins.
Cristian Guzman has hit .452 (19-for-42) with 3 doubles, one triple, one homer and 7 RBI in his last 9 games, including multi-hit efforts in the last 6 games.
Ryan Zimmerman has hit safely in 6 consecutive games, batting .440 (11-for-25) with 2 doubles, one home run and 4 RBI.
For the 4th time this season, a team had pitchers earn their first major league wins in back-to-back games (Shell and Mock).
Collin Balester allowed 4 runs and 6 hits in a career-high 7.0 innings.
With today's crowd of 31,090, the Nationals have drawn 2,020,484 fans this season
Final Linescore
Braves 4-8-0
Nationals 8-11-0
WP-Mock (1-3)
LP-Dessens (0-1)
HR-Escobar (8), Boone (6)
