The Washington Nationals completed a four-game sweep of the lowly Cubs on Thursday with another loud evening at the plate. The Nats hammered Chicago starter Justin Germano on their way to a 9-2 blowout win. After hitting six homers in back-to-back games, the Nationals went deep twice more Thursday. Adam LaRoche capped the scoring with his fifth homer of the series -- a two-run shot in the sixth that just cleared the fence. The ball hit off the hands of a fan in the front row, but replay review upheld the homer for the red-hot LaRoche. The Nats' first baseman has six homers through the first six days of the month and is emerging as an MVP candidate.
Kurt Suzuki also went deep for the Nationals, taking a 1-2 offering from Germano over the left-field wall in the second inning. The blast came with two men on and gave Washington a 4-2 lead. Suzuki finished the night three for five.
The Nationals then blew things open with another three-run rally in the fourth, and frustrations would boil over for the Cubs one inning later during another bases-loaded threat. Back-to-back bench clearing incidents resulted in four ejections, but no real physical skirmish.
On the mound, Jordan Zimmermann picked up his first career win against the Cubs. He struck out nine and allowed just five hits in seven innings of work. He ensured the Nats would complete the sweep, allowing the offense to take over for the fourth straight night.
The Nats have now won eight of their last nine games and are 33 games over .500.
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