The Washington Nationals tied their season high with five homers and snapped a three-game losing streak with a 10-6 win over the host Atlanta Braves on Friday.
Carter Kieboom hit a three-run homer, Dominic Smith had a two-run shot and Lane Thomas, Keibert Ruiz and Jake Alu added solo homers for Washington (70-90), which ranks next-to-last in the majors with 151 home runs.
Ozzie Albies and Forrest Wall had three hits each for Atlanta (103-57), which clinched the National League East and home-field advantage throughout the postseason earlier this week.
The Braves lead the majors with 304 homers, three shy of the single-season mark set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins, but they didn’t add to their total on Friday.
Washington used six relievers behind starter Trevor Williams, who allowed two runs on seven hits over 3 1/3 innings. Jordan Weems (5-0) earned the win despite allowing a run in his lone inning.
Atlanta claimed an early lead with two outs in the first inning on Matt Olson’s run-scoring single. Olson increased his franchise-record RBI total to 137, two more than the former mark set by Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews in 1953.
The Braves pushed across another run in the second when Nicky Lopez scored on Ronald Acuna Jr.’s fielder’s-choice grounder.
Acuna finished 1-for-2 with two stolen bases and extended his hitting streak to 13 games. He leads the majors with 72 steals, which matches the franchise record in the modern era (since 1900) set by Otis Nixon in 1991.
Washington pulled ahead against Allan Winans with four runs in the fourth inning on Kieboom’s three-run homer and Alu’s solo blast.
The Braves regained the lead in the fifth inning with four runs on six hits, including RBI singles by Eddie Rosario, Kevin Pillar and Albies plus a run-scoring triple from Albies to go up 6-4.
Ruiz hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth and Smith put the Nationals ahead 7-6 later in the inning when he greeted reliever Brad Hand (5-3) with a two-run blast.
Winans was charged with six runs on six hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out two.
The Nationals capitalized on two Atlanta errors to extend their lead with three runs in the seventh inning. Thomas began the rally with a leadoff homer, his 28th of the season.
Atlanta had its four-game winning streak snapped despite outhitting Washington 17-10. The Braves left 15 runners on base.
–Field Level Media