The National League East leaders opened the second half of the season with a franchise record, a series sweep and a significant upgrade — exactly how the Nationals wanted to keep their momentum going.
Ryan Zimmerman on Monday set the Nationals’ career home run record with a solo shot and Bryce Harper connected again as Washington powered their way to a 6-1 victory for a four-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.
Zimmerman’s 235th career homer moved him ahead of Vladimir Guerrero for the most in Expos and Nationals history.
Photo: AP
Guerrero quickly tweeted his congratulations, saying he does not mind being second.
“It’s special to be in one place your entire career,” said Zimmerman, in his 12th season with the team that made him a first-round draft pick. “You can’t do stuff like this if you’re not in the same place for a long time. So I feel very lucky to have spent my entire career here, honored to have hit more home runs than any Expo or National. It’s cool.”
The Nationals emerged from the All-Star break with an emphatically successful series — 13 homers, including three by Harper, and 35 runs overall by the league’s top offense.
It was their first four-game sweep of the Reds and it left them 6-1 against Cincinnati this season.
The Nationals improved to a season-high 20 games over .500 (56-36) with their ninth victory in 11 games.
The Nationals’ roster got a little better during the series, too.
Washington shored up their weak bullpen by getting relievers Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle from Oakland on Sunday. They were to join the squad in Los Angeles yesterday for the start of a series against the Angels.
“We know we have a good team and we’ve put ourselves in a good spot to start the second half, but we’ve got a ways to go,” Zimmerman said. “Obviously, we acquired two talented guys for the bullpen, and we’ll just try to keep scoring runs so that they can come in and lock the games up.”
Stephen Strasburg (10-3) recovered from his shortest start of the season by fanning 11 in seven innings and allowing four hits, including Eugenio Suarez’s homer.
Strasburg left his previous start — a 13-0 loss to Atlanta on July 8 — after Nick Markakis’ liner deflected off his hip in the third inning.
He allowed only two hits — including an infield single — in his final five innings.
“Your body wants to pretend it’s the off-season,” Strasburg said of the break between starts. “It took a little while to get going.”
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