The Washington Nationals extended their winning streak to five straight games on Tuesday night with a 4-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Nats kept it humming with early offense and yet another impressive performance from their pitching staff. Chien-Ming Wang picked up his second win of the season, his first since moving into the rotation. Wang was not particularly sharp, issuing five walks over five innings but he held the Jays to just two runs on four hits. He made one mistake to Jose Bautista, who's among the best in the game at making pitchers pay for mistakes. "Joey Bats" blasted a two-run homer over the left-field wall but that would be the only damage done by the Jays' offense.
The Nats plated their runs through a power surge, taking Toronto deep three times. The hot-hitting Bryce Harper started things off with a bomb to straightway center off Henderson Alvarez. It was his second homer of the road trip. One inning later, the Nats would go ahead 3-0 when Danny Espinosa took Alvarez again over the centerfield wall. After Bautista cut the lead to one, Davey Johnson got an unexpected boost from the nine-hole when back-up catcher Jhonatan Solano got a hold of one for the first home run of his career.
After Wang left the game, the Nats bullpen slammed the door over the final four innings. Ross Detwiler pitched 1.2 perfect innings and Tyler Clippard slammed the door in the ninth.
Washington, which is now 6-2 against the AL East, will go for their second straight sweep on Wednesday with Stephen Strasburg on the mound.
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