Bryce Harper followed with a double to score Revere. To make things tougher though, injuries are beginning to pile up for Dusty Baker and the Nationals.
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A pair of 22-year-old rookies each making their third start will face off when the Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves meet Saturday night in the second of three games.
Washington picked up 11 hits, including three triples and two homers off Atlanta pitching Saturday night. Rendon drove in four runs and Chris Heisey added a solo home run.
Freeman homered for the second straight game, matching his career high of 23.
First-place Washington (67-47) fell to 1-3 without Bryce Harper, whose neck stiffness continues to keep him out of the lineup.
“It was a great performance, ” Baker said.
“So, I put him back in the lineup”.
“I think the reason why you get three hits is that you have three good at-bats”.
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo deemed Harper day-to-day before Saturday’s game and after learning the slugger’s MRI came back “clean”.
The outfielder’s take on the talk with Baker sounded more man-to-man.
“I just walked in there and said I could help the team win today”, Harper stated. “He said, ‘OK, no problem'”.
Roark (12-6, 2.88 ERA) has won his last three starts and has allowed one earned run or less in four of six. Revere had the other two and drove in a run for the NL East leaders.
Washington was 3-2 without Harper. All of those wins have come with the newly-acquired Matt Kemp serving as the team’s starting left fielder and hitting in the cleanup spot behind star first baseman Freddie Freeman.
The three first-inning runs were one more than Jenkins allowed in his previous 18 innings over three starts.
On the latest in a string of blazing hot August days, Tanner Roark battled the conditions – 96 degrees at first pitch, with a heat index of 107 – and churned out seven innings of one-run ball. The reliever allowed one run on three hits with one strikeout. “Once that happened it kind of went downhill from there”. He has pitched at least seven innings in eight of his last 10 starts.
“We’re never out of it”, Freeman said.
Trailing 7-1 entering the eighth, Atlanta scored one run in the eighth and four in the ninth against the bullpen. Their success, coupled with consistent production from right fielder Nick Markakis and the ever-present power-hitting ability of the aforementioned Kemp and Freeman, should make Atlanta a unsafe team for anyone to play down the stretch.
Turner went 2 for 5 for his third straight multihit game in the series.
Washington’s Jayson Werth singled, extending his on-base streak to 42 games. The Nationals are 4-0 in Roarks last 4 home starts vs. Braves. It is the longest streak in the majors and two shy of Ryan Zimmerman’s Nationals record set in 2009.
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The Braves will enjoy an off day on Monday before opening a six-game home stand on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins.
