Washington Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez was denied his 20th victory by the Atlanta Braves, who defeated their division rivals on Sunday evening, 5-1, and completed a three-game sweep. The victory brought the Braves to within 5.5 games of first place in the NL East and padded their lead for the top wild-card seed.
Braves Break Out Brooms, Sweep Nationals
The Atlanta Braves complete a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals and pad their lead in the wild card.
Atlanta put the game out of reach for Washington in the seventh inning by scoring three runs, with the death blow coming off of Dan Uggla's two-run single. Uggla went 1-for-3 in the contest, while teammate Chipper Jones contributed a 1-for-2 effort with a pair of walks.
Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman each had two hits, and Desmond recorded the Nationals' lone RBI of the evening.
Braves starter Mike Minor hurled six innings, giving up five hits and one run. He struck out three and walked two. Gonzalez tossed 5-plus innings, allowing four hits and two runs while striking out five and walking four.
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