Solarte homers twice as Blue Jays hold off Nationals 6-5 to end three-game skid

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Solarte now has 14 homers on the season, four short of the career-high 18 he had last year with the San Diego Padres.

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“It feels good, but you don’t look at numbers you just try to look at wins,” said Solarte. “The main goal here is to win. When everything’s doing well, we’re winning, I think everyone’s stats just kind of take care of themselves.”

Devon Travis also hit a two-run homer as Toronto (31-38) snapped a three-game losing skid. He’s 16 for 51 in his last 17 games, hitting .314.

“Homers are great,” said Travis. “I don’t know if it’s something we strive to do here but when we do it’s a thing of beauty, for sure.”

Aaron Sanchez struck out eight — including Nationals slugger Bryce Harper twice — over six innings, allowing three runs. Seungwan Oh, Aaron Loup, and John Axford came out of the bullpen for Toronto, with Loup and Axford each giving up a run.

Ryan Tepera earned his fourth save of the season, while Oh (2-2) was the pitcher of record when the Blue Jays pulled ahead in the seventh.

Anthony Rendon, Pedro Severino and Daniel Murphy had RBI singles for Washington (37-29).

Gio Gonzalez (6-3) gave up five runs over six innings, fanning three. Toronto had dropped 11 games in a row to left-handed starters until Gonzalez took the loss.

“I’ve got no explanation for that, I don’t think anybody does,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “Obviously we’re aware of it. You (reporters) remind us of that quite often. But we’re better than that, that shouldn’t happen like that.”

Gibbons added with a laugh: “We beat one tonight.”

Justin Miller allowed one run in his inning of relief for the Nationals, before Shawn Kelley pitched a scoreless inning.

Harper made the most of a two-out walk in the first inning, stealing second and then scoring on Rendon’s single to right field. Severino added a run in the second, driving in Juan Soto with a single through the gap.

Travis put the first pitch he saw over the left-field wall, bringing home Aledmys Diaz, who had singled to lead off the third. Solarte gave Toronto a 3-2 lead three batters later, putting a solo shot into the second deck at Rogers Centre to the delight of the 29,633 in attendance.

Trea Turner tied it up 3-3 in the fifth inning when he scored on a wild pitch that got past Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin.

Travis scored in the seventh to restore Toronto’s lead after a rough inning for Washington right-fielder Adam Eaton.

Travis led off with a single to right field, then Teoscar Hernandez double when Eaton lost the ball in the lights and it bounced over the fence. Justin Smoak followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, advancing Hernandez to third and bringing home Travis.

In the next at bat, Solarte hit his second homer of the night, scoring Herandez and giving the Blue Jays a 6-3 lead.

Washington chipped away at Toronto’s lead in the next inning as Murphy’s single plated Harper from third base. In the next at bat, Mark Reynolds grounded into a double play that allowed Rendon to score.

Tepera gave up a single to Wilmer Difo to open up the ninth but bore down to get three outs and earn the save.

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John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press