ATLANTA (AP) — Travis d’Arnaud had a tiebreaking RBI single in the sixth inning in his first game in a week, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 on Saturday night for their sixth win in seven games.
Orlando Arcia and Ramón Laureano hit solo home runs, and Whit Merrifield had two hits, two walks and scored a run for the Braves.
Four Atlanta relievers combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings and Pierce Johnson pitched a perfect ninth for his second save. He was in for Rasiel Iglesias, who was unavailable after working three games in four days.
Nationals rookie José Tena was 3 for 4 with a two-run homer, the first of his career. CJ Abrams and Andrés Chaparro added two hits each for Washington.
Braves starter Charlie Morton went 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and eight hits with two walks. He struck out six.
Aaron Bummer (4-2) finished the sixth inning, striking out Joey Gallo with a runner on to get the win.
Tena opened the scoring in the second inning by lifting a shot in front of the Chop House restaurant in right field that gave the Nationals a 2-0 lead.
Arcia homered in the fifth to get the Braves on the scoreboard.
Nationals starter Jake Irvin gave up two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. Robert Garcia (2-5) replaced him and failed to retire any of the three batters he faced, giving up an RBI double to Matt Olson and a run-scoring single to d’Arnaud — playing for the firs time since getting hit by a pitch last Saturday — as the Braves took a 3-2 lead.
Laureano added hit his eighth homer in the ninth inning.
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Braves RHP Reynaldo López (7-4, 2.05) goes against Nationals LHP DJ Herz (2-6, 4.15) in the series finale.
