Moore homers twice as Nats complete sweep of Jays

Stephen Strasburg (8-1) gave up two runs on five hits and a walk while
striking out eight over six innings for Washington, which earned its sixth
straight win, including a three-game sweep over the Boston Red Sox.

“It’s good to get going on the road,” said Nats outfielder Bryce Harper. “We
went 6-0 against two good teams. It’s a good feeling.”

Strasburg did not return to the mound for the seventh inning after having a
finger on his right hand looked at in the dugout.

It was the Nationals’ first undefeated, multi-city road trip since the
Montreal Expos swept back-to-back three-game sets in Houston and Atlanta from
July 4-10, 1988.

Kyle Drabek (4-7) allowed four runs on seven hits and two walks through 4 1/3
innings before leaving with an elbow injury after recording the first out in
the fifth.

“He felt a popping sensation in the back of his elbow,” Blue Jays manager John
Farrell said about Drabek. “Most encouragingly is that he felt no discomfort
in the training room afterwards, but when he felt the pop on the mound it was
clear that we had to take him out for precautionary reasons.”

Jose Bautista hit a homer for the Blue Jays, who have lost six of their last
seven games.

Washington struck first in the second inning after Michael Morse led off the
frame with a single that was followed by an Ian Desmond walk. Danny Espinosa’s
groundout to first moved the runners up to second and third before both
crossed the plate on Moore’s ground-rule double to center field.

After the Nationals stranded a man on third in the top of the third inning,
Toronto managed to tie the game in the bottom of the frame when Rajai Davis
slapped a leadoff triple into the right-center field gap and came home on
Brett Lawrie’s grounder to short.

Two batters later, Bautista hammered a ball over the left-field wall to knot
the score at 2-2.

Washington, though, quickly regained the lead for good in the fourth inning
when Moore followed Espinosa’s one-out single with a blast into the left-field
bleachers for his first career home run.

Moore’s solo shot to straightaway center field in the sixth inning and
Desmond’s blast into the second deck in left in the eighth extended the
Nationals’ cushion to 6-2.

Toronto then stranded a runner on second in the sixth and eighth innings while
also leaving a man on third in the seventh to finish the game hitting 0-for-6
with runners in scoring position.

Game Notes

Strasburg has won his last five starts…Washington swept the Blue Jays for
just the second time in franchise history. The club’s last sweep of Toronto
came from June 14-16, 2002 when the team was known as the Montreal Expos…The
Nationals improved to 63-69 all-time in interleague play, while Toronto fell
to 126-148.