Swanson leads Braves with 2 homers, 6 RBIs
Dansby Swanson homered twice and had six RBIs as the surging Atlanta Braves recorded a season-high sixth straight road victory, 12-2 over the reeling Washington Nationals on Saturday night in D.C.
Ozzie Albies, who had an RBI triple in the third inning and was a double shy of the cycle, clubbed a two-run homer during a four-run fifth, when Swanson drove home two with a single. Swanson’s three-run homer in the seventh broke things open for the Braves, who won for the ninth time in 11 games.
Swanson increased his career-high homer total to 23 with a solo shot in the ninth. Albies has homered in four straight games and Swanson two in a row for Atlanta, which has gone deep eight times in the first two of this three-game set.
Atlanta’s Max Fried
(10-7) allowed two runs — one earned — with five hits and struck out seven without a walk over six innings
as Atlanta won its seventh straight at Washington this season.
Victor Robles had two
NFL|ATLANTA
hits for the Nationals, who matched a season high with six consecutive defeats and have dropped 11 of the past
12. Washington has also lost six straight at home.
After neither team managed a hit through the first two innings, Fried helped his cause with a single in the third. He scored on Albies’ line drive over the head of center fielder Robles. Albies came home on Freddie Freeman’s two-out single.
Washington finally broke through against Fried in the fourth. Robles led off with a bunt single, went to third on Juan Soto’s double and scored on Josh Bell’s base hit up the middle.
Albies, with a man on in the fifth, put the Braves up 4-1 with his drive off Nationals starter Patrick Corbin (6-12) that barely cleared the left field fence. Swanson’s two-run hit later in the frame gave Atlanta a 6-1 lead and chased Corbin, who was charged with all six runs and seven hits over 4 2/3 innings.
Adam Duvall hit his 26th homer in the ninth for Atlanta.
Yadiel Hernandez also drove in a run for Washington, which struck out 12 times Saturday.