WASHINGTON _ After failing to take advantage of golden opportunities in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, the Braves finally broke through in the eighth Friday night against the Nationals, and broke through in a big way.
Nick Markakis had a tie-breaking RBI single with one out and Kurt Suzuki came through again in the clutch with a two-run, two-out homer off reliever Enny Romer that secured a 7-4 Braves win in the opener of a three-game series at Nationals Park.
Matt Kemp and Dansby Swanson each had a home run and reached base four times apiece for the Braves, and Brandon Phillips reached base three times and had two stolen bases including a crucial steal in the ninth to put himself in scoring position for Markakis's go-ahead single.
The Braves won for sixth time in past eight games and evened their record at 1-1 since losing their best player, Freddie Freeman, to a fractured wrist.
After seven innings the score was 4-4 and the Braves had gone 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners, including leaving multiple runners in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Swanson had a two-run homer, walk and double in his first three plate appearances to lift his batting average above the notorious Mendoza Line to .201. He's made a steady climb since bottoming out at .125 on April 21 after the Braves' 15th game.
Braves knuckleballer R.A. Dickey was hurt by shaky defense in a couple of innings and was charged with eight hits, four runs (two earned) and three walks with four strikeouts in 51/3 innings, and if not for a questionable scorekeeper's decision all but one of the runs could have been unearned.
Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez brought a 2.47 ERA to Atlanta but hadn't faced the Braves in 2017, and they've given him more trouble than any other National League team for most of his career. The left-hander allowed a season-high nine hits and four runs with three walks and five strikeouts in 52/3 innings, getting no decision to remain winless in six starts against the Braves since the beginning of the 2016 season.
After Swanson homered in the second inning to put the Braves ahead 2-0, the Nationals got three runs in the third inning on two hits, a walk and a big two-out error by Jace Peterson. In his second career start at first base filling in for injured first baseman Freddie Freeman, Peterson saw Bryce Harper's sharp grounder go past him to right-field foul territory, where it caromed off a wall that juts out toward the field. Two runs scored on the play for a 3-2 lead.
The first run in the inning scored after Michael Turner doubled and Trea Turner hit a two-out grounder that Swanson tried to bare-hand. The ball didn't touch his hand and went into the outfield, deep enough for Taylor to hesitate at third base and then dash home. The scorekeeper ruled no error and gave Turner an RBI.
After Kemp's game-tying solo homer in the third inning _ his seventh of the season _ Murphy's leadoff homer in the fourth inning put the Nationals back in front, 4-3. It was the 10th home run allowed by Dickey in eight starts and his eighth in five starts at SunTrust Park.
Dickey came in with a .239 opponents' average at SunTrust that was 40 points below his opponents' average on the road (.279), but Dickey's .543 slugging percentage allowed at SunTrust Park was more than 100 points than on the road (.441), and that home slugging mark climbed some more Friday.
However, Dickey made some big pitches to get out of jams later in the fourth inning and again in the fifth, inducing an inning-ending grounder from Trea Turner with two runners in scoring position in the fourth and getting Matt Wieters to pop out to third base with bases loaded to end the fifth.
The Braves had tied the score again in the fifth on Kurt Suzuki's run-scoring double, but they wasted a prime opportunity to take the lead when both rookie Johan Camargo and Peterson struck out with runners at second and third.
They frittered away another scoring opportunity in the sixth, after Swanson's doubled on a hustle play that caught left fielder Jayson Werth off-guard. Swanson showed his excitement with a fist pump while on his knees at second. One failed Emilio Bonifacio bunt attempt and out later, Ender Inciarte singled to shallow center and Swanson was thrown out by about 10 feet at the plate after being sent by third-base coach Ron Washington.
Phillips was walked intentionally and the Braves had two in scoring position after a two-out double-steal by Inciarte and Phillips, but Nick Markakis grounded out against reliever Matt Grace to end the inning, the score still tied. The Braves got two hits, a walk and two steals in the inning without scoring.
They had yet another chance to take the lead in the seventh inning after loading the bases on a leadoff single from Kemp and consecutive two-out walks by Peterson and Swanson against reliever Shawn Kelly, who then struck out rookie pinch-hitter Rio Ruiz on three pitches to end the inning with bases full.
Gonzalez is 0-1 with an 11.08 ERA in his past three starts against the Braves and 4-9 record and 5.13 ERA in 18 career starts against them, his highest ERA against an NL team and three more losses than he's had against any other major league team. He was 2-6 with a 5.34 ERA in 10 starts at Turner Field, twice as many losses as Gonzalez has at any other road ballpark in his 10-year career with Oakland and Washington.
