Nats 8, Braves 3
Make it four in a row for the Nationals. Believe it or not – okay, maybe this isn’t so crazy considering their 66-88 record – but this is the team’s first four-game winning streak of the year. They were previously 0-7 after winning three in a row in 2010. Read about Adam Dunn’s big night and a nice performance by Jordan Zimmermann and the bullpen in our game story here.
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The run itself proved inconsequential. But the most exciting moment of the game had to be Willie Harris’ inside-the-park homer. It happened in the seventh inning with Washington up 6-1. Harris drove a ball to deep center off Braves reliever Kyle Farnsworth. Atlanta’s Nate McLouth made a valiant leap, but the ball smacked off the wall and back towards left center. By the time left fielder Matt Diaz got there and fired the ball into shortstop Alex Gonzalez, Harris was already tearing around third base. He easily beat the relay throw, sliding safely home on his stomach.
His expression of sheer joy quickly turned to agony in the dugout, though. You ever tried running full speed around the bases certain a collision was waiting for you at home plate? It took Harris until well into the next inning and a pitching change to catch his breath and his legs to stop shaking.
“To be honest with you,” Harris cracked. “I didn’t want to go.”
No way that’s true. His body may have screamed in protest, but when Harris was asked if he’d ever hit an inside-the-park homer – or come close – he knew the answer right away. Nope. The closest he came was a game in Philadelphia when he banged a pitch off Kyle Kendrick into right field. He even knew Matt Stairs was playing right for the Phillies that day. But he was about to overtake teammate Tim Redding, a pitcher, on the bases so the stop sign came up and Harris slammed on the brakes.
“Think I could have made it, too,” he said with a smile.
This time there was no stop sign. Third-base coach Pat Listach waved his arm frantically as the Braves tried to get the ball to home plate and catcher Brian McCann.
“Once I saw it bang off the wall I’m saying to myself ‘I got a shot right here for [home run] No. 10,’” Harris said. “But at the same time when I was rounding second I picked Pat Listach up and I’m like ‘Oh, are you serious?’ I was just tired, man. But what a way to get No. 10.”
Indeed. Even better – it came against his home-state team. Harris’ mother, Geraldine, and his grandmother, Elizabeth Hudson, were both watching at home in Georgia. They don’t get to see him play much so they relish when the Nats and Braves get together. Harris, who had the home-run ball in his locker to give to his mom later, was going to call his grandmother on his way home from Nationals Park. But he didn’t have to talk to her – a Braves fan of 60 years and partial to Atlanta manager Bobby Cox – to know the reaction.
“’Oh my God! My baby!’ I know exactly what she said,” Harris said. “I’ll call her here on the way home. I’m pretty sure she was excited. But she loves herself some Bobby Cox. She’s a Bobby Cox fan. She tells me ‘Baby, I want you to do well, but I want the Braves to get to the postseason.’”
Nats Notes
» This four-game winning streak is Washington’s longest since it ended the 2009 season with seven in a row.
» Nats catcher Ivan Rodriguez reached safely in three of four plate appearances with a base hit and two walks.
» Washington is 16-1 when scoring eight runs or more.
» Atlanta has gone cold at the wrong time. The Braves are 86-68 and have lost four in a row. If San Diego beat Cincinnati in a late game in California Friday night then the Braves would be a half-game behind the Padres for the N.L. wild card. With eight games left in the regular season Atlanta is now seven behind first-place Philadelphia (93-61) in the N.L. East.
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