MILWAUKEE _ Bullpen day wound up being a rousing success for the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon.
Brent Suter pitched three shutout innings in his return from the disabled list, then Jeremy Jeffress, Jacob Barnes, Anthony Swarzak and Junior Guerra followed the left-hander with effective appearances of their own in place of recently replaced starter Matt Garza.
Domingo Santana hit a pair of home runs to power the offense, and the Brewers beat the Washington Nationals, 7-2, at Miller Park to cap a 4-2 home stand.
Two batters reached base in the first against Suter, via a walk and a single. He got out of the jam, and the Nationals reached base just twice until Ryan Zimmerman's two-out, two-run homer in the ninth foiled what would have been Milwaukee's second shutout in three days against NL East-leading Washington.
All five of the Brewers' hits off Washington starter Edwin Jackson were for extra bases.
Santana got things going with a booming shot to left-center field that bounced off the scoreboard in the second, making it, 1-0.
Neil Walker and Ryan Braun opened the fourth with consecutive doubles to up Milwaukee's lead to 2-0. The two-bagger was just the third extra-base hit for Braun in his last 15 games.
Two batters later Santana struck again, homering almost to the same spot off Jackson to double the Brewers' advantage to 4-0. Santana now has 24 homers on the season.
The Brewers padded their lead in the sixth after Walker doubled, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a Travis Shaw sacrifice fly to right.
Jeffress (2-0) and Barnes each followed Suter with a pair of effective innings, with Barnes striking out four. Swarzak fanned a pair in the eighth, then Guerra struck out the first two batters he faced in the ninth before walking Daniel Murphy and then giving up a first-pitch homer to Zimmerman.
