Luis García Jr. was a triple away from hitting for the cycle in his second consecutive three-hit game. Kyle Finnegan earned a four-out save in his first appearance since giving up a four-run lead, and the Washington Nationals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4 on Saturday, ending a five-game losing streak.
Travis Blankenhorn hit a two-run double on a ball that left fielder Jackson Chourio let drop behind him at the base of the wall during a two-out rally, giving Washington a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
“We get the ball in the zone, we get the ball up, we put aggressive swings on it and good things happen,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “We hit the ball really, really well.
Luis García is really focused on trying to get the ball in the zone. He had a good day. Blankenhorn got a big hit for us. They played well.”
Aaron Civale (2-8) gave up five runs and seven hits in four innings, falling to 0-2 in five starts since Milwaukee traded for him from Tampa Bay on June 3.
“Obviously, he has been a really successful major league pitcher,” Brewers manager Patrick Murphy said. “He isn’t having his best year but he’s still kind of finding himself and how he wants to attack people and how he wants his arsenal to work.
That two-seam fastball sinker down hasn’t really been there for him and cutter has been inconsistent.”
DJ Herz (2-4) got his second major league win, the first for the 23-year-old rookie left-hander after going 0-3 in a six-start winless stretch since his last win against Miami on June 15. Herz allowed one unearned run and two hits over five innings with six strikeouts and a walk.
“I feel like when they scored the three runs kind of lit me up and got me going and we took it off from there,” Herz said. “I feel like (my fastball) always been my best pitch and it’s been the pitch that I attack with and when the fastball is on it’s going to be a good day. It has been good as of late.”
Finnegan had not pitched since giving up five runs in a 9-8 loss at Arizona on Monday. He came in to replace Joan Adon with a 6-1 lead, two runners on base, and two outs in the eighth inning.
Finnegan threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score and gave up an RBI single to Gary Sánchez before getting Rhys Hoskins out with a fly ball.
In the ninth inning, Finnegan allowed a two-out single to Brice Turang but got Jackson Chourio to ground out to end the game. This earned him his career-best 29th save in 33 chances; he had 28 saves last year.
Rhys Hoskins hit his 19th home run for Milwaukee, a solo shot in the seventh inning off Derek Law. Hoskins has hit 25 of his 167 home runs against the Nationals.
García’s two-out double past Hoskins at first base and down the right-field line started the opening rally against Civale, who needed 34 pitches to get his first three outs. Keibert Ruiz hit a go-ahead single, and Alex Call finished the rally with an RBI single, the first of his three hits.
García homered in the third inning, his 12th of the season. He has 11 extra-base hits and 16 RBIs in his last 21 games and is hitting .397 since July 3. Exactly a year ago, García was sent down to Triple-A Rochester for what turned out to be a five-week stint.
“I have learned a lot,” García said through a translator. “It’s something that probably had to be done. It was a lesson that had to be taught to me. I think now that I am here, I have learned a lot from it and keep going forward.”
