WASHINGTON _ R.A. Dickey's knuckleball comes and goes at this stage of the veteran's career, and for two innings Tuesday night it was gone. Gone as in not behaving as he wanted it to, and gone as in pitches deposited into the seats by Nationals hitters.
Ryan Zimmerman hit two home runs off Dickey and Daniel Murphy hit another off the knuckleballer, powering the Nationals to a 10-5 win against the Braves to even the series at a game apiece at Nationals Park.
Dansby Swanson had a two-run double in the fourth inning and Rio Ruiz hit a two-run homer in a three-run sixth as the Braves took a 5-3 lead, but Dickey failed to retire any of the five batters he faced in the bottom of the sixth, and all of them scored before the inning was through.
That gave the lead back to the Nationals, whose shoddy bullpen managed to protect it this time, unlike Monday when the Braves outscored the Nationals 5-1 in the final two innings of an 11-10 win in a dizzying series opener.
Swanson went 3 for 3 with an intentional walk in four plate appearances, his second three-hit game in seven days after having none previously this season.
Zimmerman and Murphy were a combined 6 for 8 with three homers and five RBIs for the Nationals, who've won 24 of their past 27 home games against the Braves.
Dickey (4-5) followed his best start of the season by allowing eight hits and eight runs in five-plus innings Tuesday, the last runs charged to him coming after Luke Jackson came on in relief and gave up a two-run double to the first batter he faced, Matt Wieters.
The Nationals sent seven batters to the plate in the sixth inning before the Braves recorded an out.
Zimmerman and Murphy hit back-to-back homers in the first inning and Zimmerman added a two-run homer in the sixth off Dickey, moving Zimmerman into a tie with Vladimir Guerrero for the Expos/Nationals franchise home-run lead with 234.
Nationals starter Joe Ross gave up nine hits, five runs and three walks in 52/3 innings _ the fifth time he allowed five or more earned runs in eight starts this season _ but the Braves couldn't add any runs against a Nationals bullpen that began the day with a National League-worst 5.06 ERA.
In Dickey's last outing Thursday against the Phillies, he had his best start of the season with Tyler Flowers catching him for the first time since spring training. Dickey held the Phillies to three hits and one run with no walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings of a 3-1 Braves win at SunTrust Park.
With Flowers behind the plate again Tuesday, Dickey allowed a triple to the second batter he faced, Ryan Raburn, who scored on a Bryce Harper's groundout for a 1-0 lead. Then things really got troublesome for Dickey, who gave up homers to Zimmerman and Murphy in a span of three pitches.
That made it three runs allowed by Dickey before recording his third out.
But then at that point, as if flipping a switch, Dickey found his groove again and suddenly looked like he had five days before against the Phillies. The 42-year-old retired 13 of the next 14 batters including perfect innings in the third, fourth and fifth, with four strikeouts in those innings.
Then, that figurative switch got flipped again before the sixth inning. And the Nationals lit him up.
