WASHINGTON _ On a night when the Braves tagged Stephen Strasburg for six runs and three homers in the first three innings, the Braves still seemed headed for a loss against the Nationals.
But it's hard to overstate how truly bad this Nationals bullpen is, and how much more capable are these Braves of hitting home runs and rallying late than they've been in the past couple of seasons.
Tyler Flowers hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning, the fifth of the night for the Braves, lifting them to a wild 11-10 win in a series opener at Nationals Park.
Matt Adams homered twice for the Braves, "Big City" helping to vanquish their Nationals Park curse, at least for a night.
After Flowers turned a one-run deficit into an 11-9 lead, Jim Johnson gave up an RBI double to Trea Turner in the ninth before getting Bryce Harper on a fly-out to end the game.
Nick Markakis and Matt Kemp also homered for the Braves _ back-to-back jacks in the first inning _ and Adams had the fifth multi-homer game of his career and second in less than two weeks.
Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz blew two early multi-run leads, but the Braves stormed back against the Nats' porous pen, with Adams' leadoff homer in the eighth cutting the lead to 9-7 and Ender Inciarte's bases-loaded sacrifice fly trimming the deficit to one run before the inning was through.
Matt Albers walked two of the first three batters in the ninth, Markakis and Adams, before Flowers hit an opposite-field homer that, appropriately enough, landed in the Nationals bullpen. And stunned the Nationals crowd.
It was just the third win for the Braves in their past 26 games at the ballpark on the Anacostia River, an epic stretch of frustration going back to June 21, 2014.
The Braves snapped a three-game losing streak, winning despite seeing Foltynewicz rocked for 11 hits and eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings.
Foltynewicz, who didn't allow a run in his previous two starts, was staked to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and couldn't protect it for two innings. He was given a 6-4 lead on Adams' three-run homer in the third inning, and couldn't protect that for two innings either.
The Braves scored twice as many runs in the first three innings as they scored in three games Saturday and Sunday against the Mets. And they did it against Strasburg, who dominated them in his first two starts against the Braves this season and came in with a 7-2 record and 2.80 ERA.
They got consecutive homers from Markakis and Kemp in the first inning for a 3-0 lead, and Adams homered off Strasburg with two on in the third and added an eighth-inning solo homer off Jacob Turner.
Foltynewicz stumbled and the Braves outfield had some ragged moments in a four-run fourth inning, when Foltynewicz was replaced after giving up a leadoff homer to Bryce Harper, a single to Daniel Murphy that landed in front of diving center fielder Inciarte, and a fly ball that Inciarte lost in the lights that was scored an RBI double for Adam Lind.
Lind ended up scoring later in the inning, the last run tacked onto Foltynewicz's almost inexplicably bad ledger.
Inexplicable in that he had allowed just six hits and four walks with 14 strikeouts in 14 scoreless innings over his past two starts before Monday. In the first two innings Monday, he gave up four runs, six hits (two homers) and two walks.
The adage about baseball being a funny game _ or cruel one, depending upon your view _ was brought home again a day after Braves pitcher Jaime Garcia pitched seven strong innings in a 2-1 loss to the Mets on Sunday to give him a 1-3 record in his past five starts despite a 1.49 ERA and only six earned runs allowed in 36 1/3 innings over those five games.
On Monday, Strasburg gave up seven hits, six runs and three homers in five innings and still was in position to get a win before his bullpen faltered. Strasburg's 10 strikeouts gave him his 33rd career double-digit strikeout game and fourth this season, including three in as many starts against the Braves this season, all wins for the big right-hander.
Strasburg has 31 strikeouts and three walks in 19 2/3 innings against the Braves this season, and allowed two runs in seven innings in each of the first two.
It was just the second time that Strasburg allowed more than two runs in his past 10 starts against the Braves. He got no decision Monday and is 7-1 with a 3.05 ERA in his past 10 starts against the Braves, with 12 of 20 runs he allowed in that span coming in two games. He's received 5.5 support runs per nine innings pitched against the Braves in that period.
