I'm sure it wouldn't bother Gio Gonzalez if he never faced the Braves again.
Aaron Harang turned in another masterful performance and the Atlanta offense clobbered Gonzalez early on its way to a 10-2 trouncing and a sweep of the Nationals.
The Nationals shot themselves in the foot yet again with more errors against the Braves. After Jason Heyward walked, B.J. Upton laid down a bunt down the first base line; Gonzalez fielded but Adam LaRoche couldn't glove the ball and it sailed into right field. Heyward scored on a sacrifice fly by Freddie Freeman, but the biggest blow of the inning was Justin Upton's two-run homer to cap the frame.
The onslaught continued in the second inning. Tyler Pastornicky led off with a triple and scored on Heyward's double. One out later, Freddie Freeman hit a towering home run to right, but initially looked to both Freeman and Gonzalez to be foul until the wind blew it fair and onto the walkway. 6-0 Braves.
In Freeman's next at-bat, the first pitch from Gonzalez ran in on him and caught him on the side of his right hand. It didn't appear to be serious as Freeman was able to stay in the game.
Washington finally scored in the fifth on a groundout. Harang struck out five in six innings, allowing just one run.
If the end result wasn't already academic at this point, Atlanta's eighth inning made it so. Freeman drove in his fourth run of the game with a double and Andrelton Simmons hit a three-run homer to center.
Gus Schlosser gave up a ninth-inning home run to Adam LaRoche before striking out the side to finish the game.
Win Expectancy