“We were going to take him out after the sixth, cause they had some unsafe hitters coming up and they were starting to hit the ball pretty well and Scherzer said, ‘Hey, man, no, I want to go back out there'”. “The power of positive thinking goes a long way, especially in this game”.
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Pinch-hitter Ben Revere dropped down a ideal bunt with two on and no outs in the eighth. Weber allowed five runs in three innings as the Braves had a six-game winning streak snapped.
“We left a lot of guys on against him, but that’s why he is who he is, too”, Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. Gonzalez has posted a 2.31 ERA in two starts against Atlanta this season.
Washington maintained an 8 1/2-game lead in the NL East over the Mets, who won 5-0 at Cincinnati.
“He’s full of determination”, Baker told reporters after the 6-4 win.
Koda Glover (2-0) retired the only two batters he faced to earn the victory, while Mark Melancon got his 39th save in 42 opportunities.
Ender Inciarte led off the game by extending his hitting streak to 17 games. Daniel Murphy had three hits for the Nationals and Bryce Harper had two.
“The ball kept carrying”.
Scherzer has put up a 2.88 ERA across 197 innings pitched this year, with a stellar 31.6 percent strikeout rate and 6.1 percent walk rate.
Braves rookie Swanson got the first homer of his big-league career in the second to make it 3-0.
“That was a tough play”, Baker said. Atlanta (54-84) was in business for more with runners on second and third with one out, but failed to drive either man home.
Update: Gonzalez helped his own cause with an RBI single in the second. Rendon’s homer was his 17th of the season.
Scherzer gave up seven hits, the two walks and two earned runs, throwing 107 pitches total, 77 for strikes, with nine groundouts and five fly ball outs, and he earned his 16th win.
“This is kind of like Spring Training where a lot of times my second team played better than my first team, so”. He was not real sharp.
The Braves built an early lead thanks in part to Swanson’s home run. Swanson added a RBI groundout and relief pitcher Joel De La Cruz singled to score another run. Weber gave up five runs in three innings before Jed Bradley took over in the fourth.
NOTES: The Nationals called up RHP Lucas Giolito and INF Wilmer Difo from Triple-A Syracuse before the game … He hit.400 (8-for-20) and had a slugging average of.850 during the week.
Nationals: Washington manager Dusty Baker said RHP Stephen Strasburg will start Wednesday.
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Braves: RHP Mike Foltynewicz (8-5, 4.31) starts the series finale for Atlanta.
