Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper lead Washington Nationals past Atlanta Braves

WASHINGTON — Bryce Harper smashed a grand slam for his 100th career homer, Wilson Ramos had a homer and two RBIs and Stephen Strasburg allowed just two runs as the Washington Nationals beat the winless Atlanta Braves 6-2 on Thursday to complete a four-game sweep.

Harper, the reigning National League MVP, crushed a 1-0 pitch from Braves starter Julio Teheran (0-2) off the second deck in right field with two outs in the third inning. At 23 years and 181 days, Harper became the eighth-youngest player to reach 100 homers, just 20 days shy of Johnny Bench and four days ahead of Albert Pujols.

Harper’s third homer of the year gave the Nationals a 4-1 lead and led to a short curtain call from the dugout in the last game of the homestand. It was the first career grand slam for Harper, who hit 42 homers last season.

The Braves are 0-9 this season and have lost their last 14 games at Nationals Park. Washington (7-1) is 27-9 against Atlanta since June 21, 2014.

Ramos hit a solo homer in the fourth to give Washington a 5-1 advantage and his RBI double in the sixth made it 6-1. His double drove in hot-hitting Daniel Murphy, who had doubled.

The Braves assumed a 1-0 lead in the third on a RBI single by Nick Markakis off starter Stephen Strasburg (2-0), who gave up four singles and two runs in 7 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts.

Markakis had his second hit, an RBI double, in the eighth off left-handed reliever Felipe Rivero to cut the margin to 6-2.

Teheran allowed six runs and six hits in seven innings and fell to 3-3 in 13 career starts against Washington. Strasburg was originally slated to pitch Wednesday, but his start was pushed back a day because of illness.

Washington has won five in a row overall and seven straight dating to last season against the Braves, who have been outscored 55-23 this season.

The Braves have allowed 13 homers this season and hit only three. The Nationals have gone deep eight times while giving up just three homers.