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WASHINGTON -- On his first swing back from a knee injury, Bryce Harper hit a curtain-call home run. Jordan Lyles Jersey . Welcome back, slugger. "Typical Bryce right there, hes all about the drama," teammate Jayson Werth said. "He didnt disappoint us, I guess." Harpers first-inning solo shot Monday night was the sparkplug for the Washington Nationals in a 10-5 pounding of the slumping Milwaukee Brewers. It was the 20-year-old Harpers only hit of the night, but the domino effect was real. Werth, unhappily bumped to second in the lineup because of Harpers return, got five RBIs. Starting pitcher Jordan Zimmerman was an unexpected offensive juggernaut with a team-high three hits, including a double to start a five-run third inning and a single to open a two-run fourth. Put it all together and the Nationals had their second runaway win in as many days. After toying with .500 for the entire month of June, Washington moved two games above the break-even mark for the first time since late May. "Its kind of contagious. Everybody knows weve got some work to do," Washington manager Davey Johnson said. "Lets get down to business. Lets get serious." Harper missed 31 games with bursitis in his left knee -- the most lingering fallout from his collision with the Dodger Stadium wall -- and was activated from the 15-day disabled list before the game. Batting third and playing left field, he launched the second pitch he saw, a fastball from Yovani Gallardo (6-8), into the visitors bullpen beyond left field for an opposite-field homer. Harper raised his right arm and pointed to the fans as he finished his familiar sprint around the bases. After lots of high-fives in the dugout, he returned to the top of the steps and gave a thumbs-up curtain call. "I felt like I was back on opening day," said Harper, who homered in his first two at-bats of the season. "I was trying to get something I could drive. I got a pitch I could handle a little bit and put it where I wanted to." The solo shot was Harpers 13th homer of the season and 24th RBI. He hurt his knee in the mishap in Los Angeles on May 13 and reinjured it several times over the following two weeks before going on the disabled list. He went 4 for 11 in minor league rehab games last week. He finished 1 for 4 with a walk on Monday. He slid hard into second base on a double play in the sixth inning, showing no signs of being gimpy in his knee. The Nationals improved to 26-19 when Harper plays; they are 16-21 when he doesnt. He and the teammates made life easy for Zimmermann (12-3), who had an 8-0 lead at one point and pitched six innings. He allowed four runs and tied unbeaten Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers for the major league lead in wins. Zimmermann said his night at the plate was better than his night on the mound. He joked about the size of his bat, initially claiming it was 39 inches instead of 34. "I pitch all right," Zimmerman said. "But definitely three hits is awesome." Werths mood, by contrast, was nowhere near jovial, especially for a player with his best RBI game since 2009. He kept reporters waiting for nearly an hour after the game and proclaimed himself "just a grunt out here playing ball." "I dont necessarily like hitting second," Werth said. "But if thats the best for our team, Ive said it before: Last year when I led off, it wasnt personally the best fit for me, but it was the best for our team and thats why I felt like it should have happened. And the same goes for me hitting second now." The Nationals, perhaps finally finding their stride after a middling first half of the season, have won five of seven to pull within six games of the first-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East. Washington scored a season-high 13 runs on Sunday against the New York Mets. Meanwhile, the Brewers, missing injured slugger Ryan Braun, have lost six straight and are 32-49 at the midpoint of their season. Gallardo struggled for the second straight start. With the Brewers bullpen spent after Sundays 14-inning loss to Pittsburgh, the right-hander was left to fend for himself until he was pulled in the fourth inning. He allowed eight runs, and his ERA rose from 4.20 to 4.78. "You dont expect to see it from Yovani because hes been so consistent through his career, but hes at a point right now where for some reason hes deep in counts to almost every batter," Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. "Were 3-2 and hes having to make a great pitch, and you cant survive if you keep doing that." NOTES: Johnson said LHP Ross Detwiler had a good bullpen session and is on pace to start Wednesday as scheduled. Detwiler had stiffness in his lower back after his last start. ... The Nationals optioned RHP Erik Davis to Triple-A Syracuse to make room for Harper. ... Brewers RHP Kyle Lohse will make his next start Wednesday on two days rest. Lohse started Sunday, but he went only 1 2-3 innings before a 2-hour rain delay. Cheap Brewers Jerseys . Colorado came up big against Chicago last spring, and repeated that performance Tuesday night. Varlamov stopped 36 shots and Paul Stastny had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche in a 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks. Junior Guerra Jersey . Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic said his team will include 9th-ranked Janko Tipsarevic and 27th-ranked Viktor Troicki as he decided to let the top-ranked Djokovic rest. https://www.cheapbrewers.com/369y-devin-williams-jersey-brewers.html .C. -- Glenn Howard needed an extra end to move into the Masters Grand Slam of Curling final.DALLAS -- Floridas Aleksander Barkov enjoyed his debut a little more than all the new faces for the Dallas Stars. The 18-year-old player from Finland scored the tying goal, veteran Marcel Goc followed with the first of his two in the third period, and the Panthers spoiled Lindy Ruffs first game as Dallas coach with a 4-2 victory over the Stars on Thursday night. "It had a lot of aspects to it," said Panthers coach Kevin Dineen, whose team had the worst record in the lockout-shortened season after a division-winning campaign. "Our young players coming through and making a difference, a really nice goal. Our veteran guys stepping up when they needed to." The Panthers erased a 2-1 deficit with goals about 4 1/2 minutes apart. Barkov, the No. 2 pick in this years draft, scored as bodies piled up around Kari Lehtonen in front of the Dallas net. The teenager found the loose puck, spun and shot it inside the left post to make it 2-2. "He had a big game," Panthers forward Kris Versteeg said. "He ended up playing well. He played great for us." Goc put Florida in front when he took a centring pass from Tomas Fleischmann and beat Lehtonen with 4:55 remaining. He scored again into an empty net in the final 2 minutes. "We didnt win enough battles," said Ruff, who spent 15 seasons with Buffalo before getting fired by the Sabres in the middle of last season. "When it was 2-2 and they walked in through the neutral zone to score, that wasnt a good play for our team." Three minutes before Barkovs goal, Brenden Dillon gave Dallas a 2-1 lead with a short-handed goal. He trailed a play that was started near centre ice by Vernon Fiddler and put the puck in an open net after Tim Thomas stopped Antoine Roussel. The Stars couldnt hold the lead in the regular-season debut of "Victory Green" jerseys, carrying a shade closer to what the franchise had in Minnesota before moving south two decades ago. They also had a bevy of new faces, but all the scoring for Dallas was by holdovers. Center Tyler Seguin had the biggest conttribution among the newcomers with two shots in 16-plus minutes. Cory Spangenberg Brewers Jersey. "They played the same way all night," Dillon said. "They worked up and down the ice, and just came back on us. We cant take anything for granted. No lead is safe." Barkov wasnt the only teenager taken in the top 10 this year to make his debut on Dallas ice. But Valeri Nichushkin, an 18-year-old Russian taken at No. 10 by the Stars, had a much quieter night. Nichushkin had one shot in more than 17 minutes of ice time. Barkov ended up with four shots in 13:19. The Stars pulled even at 1 in the second period when Alex Chiasson went behind the net and stuffed the puck past Thomas, Tom Gilbert and Brian Campbell as they converged. The Panthers trio knocked the net loose just as Chiassons shot crossed the goal line. Dallas Ryan Garbutt and Floridas Dmitry Kulikov were ejected in the first period when they started fighting a few moments after Panthers defenceman Mike Weaver and Roussel fought. The sequence started when Weaver shoved Roussel after the Stars forward kept poking at the puck in Thomas pads. Roussel received a 10-minute misconduct, but wasnt ejected, and was given an extra 2-minute penalty for instigating. Scott Gomez, a 14-year veteran in his first season with the Panthers, opened the scoring with a backhand shot from the crease after a pass from behind the net by Scottie Upshall. "This is a new day for him," Thomas said of Gomez. "I know hes going to score a lot this year. The monkey is off his back." NOTES: The second intermission came with 25 seconds left in the second period. A problem with the netting above the boards led to a delay, and officials decided to send players to the dressing rooms instead of waiting out the repair. After playing the final seconds of the second, the teams switched ends and started the third. ... Ruff was on the Panthers original coaching staff in 1993. He stayed until the Sabres hired him in 1997. ... Chiasson has seven goals and eight points in his first eight NHL games, dating to last season. ' ' '