ATLANTA — Craig Stammen pitched four perfect innings after ace Stephen Strasburg left with a strained muscle on his right side, and the Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 Friday night.
Strasburg lasted two innings before leaving the shortest outing of his career. He is headed back to Washington to be examined.
Denard Span tripled twice and scored two runs for Washington, which snapped a two-game skid and trimmed its second-place deficit in the NL East to 4½ games behind the Braves.
Strasburg left with a 2-1 lead. He allowed two hits and one run — a homer by Freddie Freeman — with no walks and two strikeouts. Stammen (3-1) shut down the Braves from there.
Tyler Clippard escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh and Drew Storen worked a scoreless eighth before Rafael Soriano converted his 15th save in 18 chances.
Bryce Harper missed his fifth straight game with bursitis in his left knee.
Julio Teheran (3-2) allowed seven hits and three runs with a career-high nine strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.
REDS 6, PIRATES 0
PITTSBURGH — Johnny Cueto allowed one hit over eight dominant innings to pitch Cincinnati past Pittsburgh.
Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips hit solo home runs for the Reds, who cooled off the Pirates behind their ace. Cueto (3-0) struck out six and walked one to improve to 13-4 against Pittsburgh.
BREWERS 8, PHILLIES 5
PHILADELPHIA — Jonathan Lucroy went 5-for-5 with two home runs and four RBIs as Milwaukee battered a struggling Cole Hamels to beat Philadelphia and snap its longest losing streak of the season at six games.
Yovani Gallardo (4-5) overcame a shaky first inning to stop a four-game skid, the worst of his career.
CUBS 7, D’BACKS 2
CHICAGO — Scott Hairston hit a grand slam, Matt Garza got his first victory of the season and Chicago extended its winning streak to five games by defeating Arizona.
Alfonso Soriano had a two-run homer and Cody Ransom added a solo shot for the Cubs.
MARLINS 5, METS 1
MIAMI — Jacob Turner pitched seven scoreless innings in his season debut, and Marcell Ozuna had three hits to help Miami halt a nine-game losing streak with a win over New York.
Pinch-hitter Jordan Brown hit a two-run double, and Ed Lucas and Jeff Mathis each drove home a run in the pivotal seventh as the Marlins won for the third time in 19 games.
DODGERS 7, ROCKIES 5 (10)
DENVER — The Los Angeles Dodgers recovered from a ninth-inning blown save and scored two runs off Rockies closer Rafael Betancourt in the top of the 10th to beat slumping Colorado.
Carl Crawford scored from third on Luis Cruz’s hard comebacker that bounced off the back leg of Betancourt (1-3) and dribbled toward the third base side. Juan Uribe followed with a run-scoring single.
Interleague
PADRES 4, BLUE JAYS 3 (17)
SAN DIEGO — Clayton Richard earned his first win of the season by pitching two innings in relief and Jesus Guzman singled home the winning run with two outs in the 17th to give San Diego a victory over Toronto.
Richard (1-5), who had been scheduled to start Saturday night, came on to start the 16th. He came in 0-5 with an 8.35 ERA in seven starts and recently spent time on the disabled list with an intestinal virus. He gave up one hit and struck out two in two innings in his first relief appearance since May 2009 with the Chicago White Sox.
Rookie Jedd Gyorko’s third hit of the night, a one-out single, caromed off third base into shallow left. Gyorko was sacrificed to second by Richard and scored when Guzman singled up the middle off Todd Redmond (0-1).
