ATLANTA _ Ryan Zimmerman had the second of the Nationals' two grand slams in a 14-4 shellacking of the Braves on Wednesday, but his home run Thursday was more damaging for the home team, driving in the tying and go-ahead runs instead of merely lengthening an already substantial lead.
Zimmerman's two-run homer off R.A. Dickey in the sixth inning lifted Washington to a 3-2 win, completing a three-game sweep at SunTrust Park and continuing the Nationals' domination of the Braves and Stephen Strasburg's recent success against a team that gave him fits early in his career.
Strasburg (2-0) allowed six hits, two runs and two walks and piled up 10 strikeouts in seven innings, moving to 6-1 with a 2.33 ERA in his past eight starts against the Braves. He's won four consecutive starts in Atlanta and has 28 strikeouts with six walks in 26 innings in those games.
The Braves had two runners on with two out in the ninth against Nationals right-hander Shawn Kelly before Ender Inciarte flied out to end the game.
The Nationals improved to a staggering 32-9 against the Braves since the beginning of the 2015 season including 18-4 over the past two seasons.
Before the Nats swept through SunTrust, the Braves were riding a five-game winning streak and had a 4-0 home record at their new ballpark following a sweep of the Padres. They're 6-9 now, four games behind the National League East-leading Nationals (10-5).
The Braves start a three-city, nine-game trip Friday night at Philadelphia, where they need to takes a series against the other team at the bottom of the division standings before the Braves travel to face the Mets and Brewers.
Dickey (1-2) was in a groove and protecting a 2-1 lead until a two-out walk to Bryce Harper in the sixth inning, followed two pitches later by the Zimmerman homer to straightaway center on a knuckleball that didn't move and came in waist-high and over the middle.
Dickey allowed three hits, three runs and two walks with three strikeouts in seven innings and threw 55 strikes in just 73 pitches. The Braves decided to pinch-hit for him after Kurt Suzuki's leadoff single in the seventh inning, whereupon Emilio Bonifacio struck out to make him 0-for-9 as a pinch-hitter.
Dickey retired 14 of 15 batters between an Anthony Rendon walk in the second inning and a two-out walk in the sixth by Braves nemesis Harper, whose two homers off Julio Teheran on Wednesday included the first of the Nationals' grand slams in that rout.
Two pitches after the Harper walk, Zimmerman homered off Dickey to turn a one-run deficit into a 3-2 Nationals lead.
It was also Zimmerman who led off the second inning with a double and scored on Michael Taylor's sacrifice fly to give Washington a 1-0 lead. The Braves answered with a tying run in the second but had a chance to do much more damage after loading the bases with none out to start the inning.
Trailing 1-0, the Braves got singles from Nick Markakis and Brandon Phillips to start the second inning before Jace Peterson worked the count full and walked to load the bases. Kurt Suzuki struck out before Dickey helped himself with a ground-out to the shortstop that brought in the tying run.
Dickey had a two-run single in his Braves debut April 8 at Pittsburgh, a 6-4 loss in which half of the six runs charged to him were unearned and the Braves had three passed balls and two errors while he was in the game. He won his second start Saturday against the Padres when he gave up seven hits but only two runs in six innings, with one walk and six strikeouts.
After the veteran pitcher's RBI ground out Thursday, Ender Inciarte following with a sinking liner to right field that looked like it might drop in for a hit before Harper raced in and snared it with his glove inches above the ground for the third out of the inning. Harper, the player that Braves fans love to hate more than any other these days, had done it to them again.
Suzuki had another chance to give the Braves a lead when he came to bat with the score tied and runners on the corners with one out in the fourth inning, after a Phillips double and Peterson infield hit. This time Suzuki came through with a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 lead.
But two innings later the Nationals used another long ball from Zimmerman to reclaim a lead they wouldn't relinquish again.
