Braves Top Gonzalez, Sweep Nats
(ATLANTA) -- With the regular season winding down, the Atlanta Braves are going to try and make a run in the N.L. East.
The Braves (84-63) denied Gio Gonzalez his twentieth win and beat the first-place Washington Nationals 5-1 on Sunday night to complete a three-game sweep.
"There's still a lot of baseball left," Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Who knows what could happen? We've just got to keep playing and keep winning ballgames."
Gonzalez walked four in five innings and took the loss for the Nationals (89-57).
The win put the Braves five and a half games out of first place. "Look what happened to us last year," second baseman Dan Uggla said. "We're back in the hunt. We still need a little bit of magic, but we'll see what happens."
Last season, the Braves blew a big lead in the Wild Card race in the final weeks of the season and missed the playoffs.
Uggla came to bat with the bases loaded in the seventh with the Braves leading 3-1, Uggla hit a single to left that scored two and put the game out of reach.
Mike Minor picked up his ninth win of the year by allowing only the one run in six innings of work.
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