The Washington Nationals are steamrolling just about everybody these days. They did it again on Wednesday night, beating the Chicago Cubs 9-1 at Nationals Park to take the third game of a four-game series.
Gio Gonzalez was looking for his 18th win of the season and found it with considerable ease. The southpaw was brilliant through seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits and no walks while striking out nine.
The big story on offense was the home-run barrage unleashed by the Nats on Chris Volstad, who picked up the loss for Chicago to drop his record to 2-10.
Washington hit six homers for the second straight evening, including two by Bryce Harper and one apiece by Roger Bernadina, Ian Desmond, Danny Espinosa and Adam LaRoche. All of the blasts were of the solo variety except for LaRoche's, which was a two-run shot.
The Nationals became the third team in MLB history to hit six homers on consecutive nights, joining the 1996 Anaheim Angels and 2003 Los Angeles Dodgers, according to ESPN.
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