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Zimmerman, Milledge lead Nationals past Braves

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:20 AM By Rich Dubroff PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Washington Nationals have lost more games than any team in baseball, but over the last four nights, they have been winners.

After beating the reeling Los Angeles Dodgers three straight times, the Nationals extended their winning streak to four games with a 7-3 win over the Atlanta Braves on Friday.

The fourth straight win ties a season high for Washington, which endured a 12-game losing streak - its worst since 1976 - earlier this month.

"We don't remember the losing streak," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "We have played good the last four games. We're enjoying it right now."

Washington was led by Ryan Zimmerman and Lastings Milledge, who drove in two runs apiece.

Odalis Perez (6-10) worked 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs - two earned - and seven hits while walking two and striking out three.

Charlie Manning, Marco Estrada, Saul Rivera, Steven Shell and Joel Hanrahan combined to shut out Atlanta on one hit over the final 2 2/3 innings, with Hanrahan notching his seventh save.

Washington took a 5-0 lead after four innings, scoring one run in the first and two in both the second and fourth against Jorge Campillo (7-7), who lasted just 3 2/3 frames.

"For any pitcher, you see three or four runs and you're good," Perez said. "For me, to see four, five, six, seven runs - that's a lot of runs to work with. I'm not going to allow seven or 10. No, no, no."

Cristian Guzman, who hit for the cycle on Thursday, doubled and scored on Zimmerman's single to right field in the opening frame. Elijah Dukes led off the second with a double before scoring on a triple by Emilio Bonifacio, who came home on Guzman's single for a 3-0 bulge.

In the fourth, Bonifacio led off with a base hit and stole second. Willie Harris walked and Guzman moved the runners along with a groundout before Milledge hit an RBI single to right.

"You can get all the timely hitting - all the timely hits - you want, but if we don't win, those timely hits doesn't mean anything," Harris said. "Right now, everybody's playing well, everybody's having fun. It's a lot more fun around here when you're winning, and we're going to try to finish up strongly."

The Braves, losers of 14 of their last 18, scored three runs in the fifth to cut the deficit to 5-3. Omar Infante led off with a double and pinch hitter Greg Norton belted a two-run homer to center, his sixth blast of the season.

The shot was the 12th as a pinch hitter in Norton's career.

Josh Anderson followed with an infield single and moved to second on an error by first baseman Ronnie Belliard before scoring on a double by Martin Prado.

Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar hit into three double plays in the contest, boosting his season total to 17.

"We hit into double plays," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "(Escobar) is having a tough time. We quit hitting him in front of Chipper (Jones) because of it. Now, it happened again three times."

The Braves (59-76) fell a season-low 17 games under .500 for the third time this season and have had their troubles with the Nationals.

"They beat us, eight of 12 it was," Atlanta's Brian McCann said. "Numbers can speak for themselves."