Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith both homered during a five-run outburst in the sixth inning and helped the visiting Washington Nationals to a 6-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday to end their season-long six-game losing streak.
Washington snapped Atlanta’s seven-game winning streak and salvaged a game in their three-game set. Atlanta leads the season series 4-2.
The decisive rally began with a double by Luis Garcia, and Joey Meneses singled him home, extending his on-base streak to 18 games. Candelario followed with his eighth homer, which hit the top of the right-field wall and bounced over.
After Keibert Ruiz singled, Atlanta inserted reliever Kirby Yates, who surrendered a 444-foot blast to Smith, his first since April 29 and second of the season.
Atlanta’s Bryce Elder entered the game as the league’s ERA leader, but he was knocked out in the sixth inning. Elder (4-1) allowed a season-high five runs on eight hits, one strikeout and one walk. Elder saw his ERA rise from 2.26 to 2.69.
Washington starter Trevor Williams (3-4) worked five innings and allowed two runs on seven hits, one walk and six strikeouts.
Williams escaped from a bases-loaded situation in the fourth inning without allowing a run, retiring Ronald Acuna Jr. on a grounder to end the threat. He worked around a two-out double in the fifth.
Carl Edwards Jr. pitched two scoreless innings and Kyle Finnegan worked a scoreless eighth. Hunter Harvey pitched a perfect ninth inning, despite taking a line drive off his leg from Michael Harris II.
Atlanta grabbed a 2-0 lead in first inning on Matt Olson’s 18th homer, a two-run shot that traveled 421 feet and landed on top of the Chop House restaurant in right field.
Washington cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth inning with a two-out rally capped by an RBI single from Ruiz.
Atlanta begins a three-game series at Detroit on Monday. Washington travels to Houston to start a three-game series on Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
