WASHINGTON (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers are heading home with a pair of series victory and Christian Yelich swinging one of the hottest bats in the majors.Yelich hit his first career grand slam http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-bruce-rondon-jersey , Keon Broxton added a three-run homer, and Milwaukee earned a 9-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.He hit .444 (12 for 27) with four homers and 14 RBIs during the Brewers’ 4-2 road trip to Cincinnati and Washington. Milwaukee is in second place in the NL Central, five games behind Chicago, but it moved a half-game ahead of St. Louis for the first wild card spot.“We had every kind of game you can have here,” Yelich said. “Some rain, we had some extra-inning ones with Cincinnati. Overall, it was a good trip.”Things haven’t gone so well for Washington, which dipped back below .500 and has dropped three of its last four. The Nationals walked 11 batters Sunday, matching the team record since the club moved to Washington in 2005.Starter Jefry Rodriguez (2-2) issued seven walks while allowing seven runs in 4 2/3 innings.“All I was really trying to do was get ahead on the hitters and throw the ball pretty much own the middle,” he said.It didn’t work out that way, but he wasn’t hit hard until the fifth. Working with a 4-2 lead, Rodriguez retired two of the first three batters that inning, but yielded a Manny Pina single and then Broxton’s blast to center.Manager Dave Martinez pulled Rodriguez after another single and a walk, but reliever Tim Collins fared no better. His first six pitches were balls. Yelich hammered the seventh to left center for his 27th homer. The seven-run outburst matched Milwaukee’s highest-scoring inning of the season.Yelich has reached base safely in 19 consecutive games and has homered nine times in that span.“He’s clearly taken a jump in his offensive play,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. “The second half has been something to behold. The home runs are coming at a pretty good pace and he’s having moments, especially on this road trip Chris Beck Jersey , where he’s doing kind of superhuman things, really cool things, ‘He didn’t just do that’ kind of things.”Reliever Brandon Woodruff (3-0) pitched four scoreless innings to earn the victory.“This is Brandon Woodruff’s game,” Counsell said. “I know Yeli hits a home run and Brox hits a three-run homer, but to deliver four innings of scoreless relief in that situation is absolutely huge.”Milwaukee starter Junior Guerra allowed four runs in three innings.TRAINER’S ROOMBrewers: Milwaukee’s active roster is at 34 after recalling RHP Corey Knebel from Triple-A Colorado Springs and RHP Zach Davies from Class A Wisconsin. INF/OF Nick Franklin was activated from the 60-day disabled list and outrighted to Colorado Springs.Nationals: LHP Sean Doolittle (left toe inflammation) threw a simulated game Sunday. Martinez said he hopes Doolittle will be activated later this week. . RHP Erick Fedde (shoulder), on the disabled list since July 5, will be activated and start Tuesday against St. Louis.BROXTON’S BOMBBroxton was 1 for 11 this season with runners in scoring position, including grounders to end the first and third innings, before his homer in the fifth.“I had men on base all day today,” Broxton said. “Those are the times I’m talking about, when we need those runs. I’m glad I was able to come up the third time around and get those guys in.”WILLIAMS DEBUTSRHP Austen Williams pitched two innings in his major league debut, the beginning of what figures to be a month-long audition for a spot in the Nationals’ bullpen next season. He struck out Mike Moustakas to open his appearance and finished with two strikeouts and two walks.“It’s awesome,” Williams said. “It’s hard to describe it other than that. It’s a special moment in my life and something I’ve worked really hard to achieve.”UP NEXTBrewers: Davies (2-5, 5.23 ERA) hasn’t started a major league game since May 29 because of a shoulder injury and will get the ball Monday as Milwaukee begins a three-game series at home against the Chicago Cubs.Nationals: RHP Max Scherzer (16-6, 2.22), who is one strikeout away from his fifth 250-strikeout season in a row Miguel Gonzalez Jersey , starts Monday against St. Louis as Washington’s 10-game homestand continues. WASHINGTON — Tuesday night’s victory made it easy to overlook the fact that St. Louis Cardinals pitchers are issuing way too many walks these days.Yadier Molina smacked a grand slam, Marcell Ozuna homered twice and St. Louis beat the Washington Nationals 11-8 to snap a three-game losing streak.The Cardinals hope right-hander Miles Mikolas (13-4, 2.96 ERA) reverses the trend when he opposes right-hander Tanner Roark (8-14, 4.03) in Wednesday night’s series finale.Article continues below ...Molina provided a cushion for St. Louis (77-62) via his sixth career slam, which made it 11-5 with two outs in the ninth and Jordan Hicks later got the final out with the tying run at the plate.The 4-hour, 10-minute game included 16 walks and 20 strikeouts, with 11 walks coming from Cardinals’ pitchers.“The walks are concerning. That’s 11, 10 yesterday and eight the day before,” Shildt said. “It’s actually kind of impressive/depressive (depending) how you want to look at it. We’ve had a real opportunity to win all the last three games.”Washington pitchers gave up a more reasonable number of walks, but surrendered five home runs, including three in the sixth inning. Reliever Austen Williams, in his second major league game, was victimized in the sixth and Sammy Solis gave up Molina’s grand slam.“They are going to get an opportunity to pitch so they got to realize if they want to pitch here they got to get outs,” Martinez said. “These are the things we have to see. I can’t keep using the same guys every single day. These guys have to pitch.”Molina’s homer and one by Paul DeJong in the sixth came on 0-2 pitches.That can’t happen,” Martinez said. “I told them all ‘hey with our offense we’re going to score (runs). Every inning you guys come in is a closer inning. You got to go in there like you’re going to close the game out.’ That’s how important these innings are.”The Nationals (69-70) fell below .500 after nearly pulling off their third come-from-behind win in five days.Roark had been sizzling since the All-Star break, but struggled in his last start http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-tim-anderson-jersey , allowing four runs on six hits in six innings of a loss to the Brewers. Three of the Milwaukee hits were home runs.“Just a little erratic at times, not hitting my spots, and they made me pay for it,” Roark told federalbaseball.com, in summing up his outing after the game.Roark is 2-2 with a 5.57 ERA in six games (four starts) against the Cardinals. He picked up a win against them Aug. 16 in St. Louis when he allowed four runs (three earned) over six innings.Mikolas, who had originally been announced as Tuesday’s starter, was moved to Wednesday with John Gant taking the ball Tuesday night. Mikolas took his first loss since June 29 in his last start, when he allowed two runs on eight hits over five innings.“I don’t want to say I’m a victim of bad luck, but a couple of those balls, a couple feet this way or that way, I don’t think they are scoring a run at all,” Mikolas told mlb.com.In his last two starts, he has allowed seven runs (six earned) on 20 hits in 9 2/3 innings.He gave up four runs in seven innings to Washington in a Cardinals’ victory Aug. 13. He’s 0-1 with a 7.36 ERA in two games versus the Nationals in his career.