Mark Canha hit a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the host Milwaukee Brewers to a 9-5 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.
Canha went 3-for-5 with five RBIs as the Brewers (84-64) won for the fifth time in their last six games despite squandering a four-run lead.
Canha’s 11th homer of the season came off Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan (7-5).
Joel Payamps (6-4) was the winning pitcher despite allowing the game-tying run in the eighth.
Tyrone Taylor also homered for the Brewers, while Sal Frelick finished with three hits and two runs.
Joey Meneses went 3-for-4 and Luis Garcia homered for the Nationals (65-84), who have lost five games in a row.
The Brewers built a 3-0 lead in the first inning and led until the eighth.
The Nationals sent nine players to the plate in a three-run sixth inning. Jake Alu’s two-out RBI single in the eighth allowed Washington to tie the score at 5-5.
Brewers starter Corbin Burnes, who was trying to notch his first victory since July 20, cruised until the sixth. He ended up allowing four runs on five hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings, striking out nine.
It was another short outing for Washington starter Trevor Williams, who lasted just two innings. He allowed three runs on five hits.
The first four batters reached base in the Milwaukee first. Canha and Rowdy Tellez each had a run-scoring single and Willy Adames added a sacrifice fly, but the Brewers left the bases loaded.
Garcia opened the third inning with his seventh homer of the season to make it 3-1.
Taylor’s seventh home run of the year came in the fourth, and Josh Donaldson drove in a fifth-inning run with a single for the Brewers.
Donaldson has an RBI in three of five games since joining Milwaukee.
In the sixth, Meneses and Carter Kieboom had RBI singles and Garcia walked with the bases loaded to pull the Nationals within 5-4.
–Field Level Media
