Michael Harris II produced three hits and three RBIs on Monday as the Atlanta Braves beat the visiting Washington Nationals 11-5 to extend their winning streak to nine games.
Atlanta (74-83), which is riding the majors’ longest active win streak, has an 8-3 lead in the season series against Washington (64-93).
Harris went 3-for-5 with a double, a run and three stolen bases. Marcell Ozuna contributed three hits, Drake Baldwin added two and Ronald Acuna Jr. homered. Atlanta finished with 14 hits, reaching double figures for the seventh time during the winning streak.
The Braves put the game away in the third inning when they sent 11 men to the plate and scored five times for a 7-1 lead. Baldwin drove in a pair of runs with a bases-loaded single, and Ozuna and Harris followed with RBI singles. Acuna drew a bases-loaded walk to finish the rally.
There was more drama in the third. Miguel Cairo, Washington’s interim manager, was ejected by first base umpire Manny Gonzalez for complaining about a check swing.
On his second plate appearance of the inning, Atlanta second baseman Ozzie Albies had to leave the game when he hurt his left wrist on a swing. Albies sustained a fractured hamate bone and will miss the rest of the season.
Chris Sale (6-5) got the victory despite allowing five runs — matching his season high — in five innings. He gave up three hits and two walks, hit three batters and struck out six.
Washington starter MacKenzie Gore (5-15) was removed after two-plus innings, his shortest stint of the year. He allowed four runs on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts.
The Nationals grabbed the early lead when Nasim Nunez hit the first pitch of the game for a home run, his fourth.
The Braves evened the score when Acuna hit a solo homer, his 19th, in the first and took a 2-1 lead when Harris doubled in a run in the second.
After Atlanta’s big third inning, the Nationals got a run back in the fourth on a solo shot from Dylan Crews, his 10th home run of the year.
In the fifth, Washington got a three-run single from Andres Chaparro to make the score 8-5. However, the Braves got all the runs back in the sixth to regain control on a sacrifice fly by Nacho Alvarez Jr. and RBI singles from Jurickson Profar and Nick Allen.
