Zimmerman's homers, bullpen's zeroes give Nats 10-5 victory

Ryan Zimmerman returned to the lineup with a pair of big blasts. And the Nationals bullpen preserved a late lead for the first time on this homestand, helping snap a four-game losing streak.

Zimmerman's two home runs off R.A. Dickey paced the Nationals' offensive barrage during tonight's 10-5 victory over the Braves, one that avoided the kind of relief meltdown that became commonplace in previous nights.

Enny Romero pitched two scoreless frames after Zimmerman's second blast gave the Nats the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Shawn Kelley and Oliver Pérez then combined to pitch the ninth to finish things off and allow a crowd of 31,762 to head home happy after a sweltering night at the park.

Zimmerman, though, was the story. He now has 19 home runs and 52 RBIs to go along with a .372 batting average through the season's first 64 games. And his second blast tonight leaves him tied with Vladimir Guerrero for most homers in Nationals/Expos franchise history.

Zimmerman sat the last three days after tweaking his back, a minor injury he said he could've returned from a day earlier. Manager Dusty Baker, though, wanted to wait one more day, not only to give his slugger more time to heal but the opportunity to return to the lineup against a soft-tossing knuckleballer instead of a traditional fastball-thrower.

Baker knew what he was doing. Zimmerman stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first, and in his first at-bat since Friday crushed a knuckleball from Dickey to left-center for a two-run homer.

Daniel Murphy followed with his own homer to center, giving the Nationals a three-spot in the first that stood as their only offense for a good chunk of the evening.

Then came the bottom of the sixth, at which point the Braves had taken a 5-4 lead, getting to Joe Ross, who had successfully pitched out of trouble all night but finally caved in the top of the sixth when Rio Ruiz hammered a hanging slider to right for a two-run homer.

No problem, because moments after Bryce Harper singled home Ryan Raburn to trim the deficit to one run, Zimmerman stepped to the plate and one-upped himself. He launched another pitch from Dickey over the visitors bullpen in left-center, several rows back for a 446-foot homer, his second of the game and a milestone at that.

With 234 career home runs, Zimmerman now stands alongside Guerrero atop the franchise leaderboard. And with three more, he'll stand alongside Frank Howard atop the all-time Washington major league leaderboard at 237.