Nationals 2, Braves 1: Ian Desmond delivered a tiebreaking solo home run in the seventh inning as Washington avoided a three-game home sweep and halted its recent struggles against Atlanta.

Taylor Jordan was solid in his season debut while filling in for injured starter Doug Fister, allowing one run on six hits over 6 1/3 innings. Jerry Blevins (1-0) retired each of the three batters he faced after replacing Jordan and Tyler Clippard bridged the gap seamlessly to Rafael Soriano, who worked around a pair of two-out hits in the ninth to notch his first save.

Alex Wood (1-1) took the hard-luck loss despite yielding two runs and four hits over seven frames. Chris Johnson doubled in the sixth for the Braves’ only extra-base hit and Dan Uggla plated their only run with a sacrifice fly later in the frame as Atlanta lost in Washington for only the third time in the last 13 meetings.

The Nationals created some offense in the opening frame, getting a leadoff bunt single from Anthony Rendon and another single by Kevin Frandsen. Uggla snared Jayson Werth’s groundball up the middle in the next at-bat but the throw across his body from the left side of second base handcuffed first baseman Freddie Freeman and bounced away from him, allowing Rendon to score from second on the play.

Uggla evened it in the sixth when he followed Freeman’s leadoff single and Johnson’s double with a sacrifice fly, but Desmond put the Nationals back in front for good when he hammered Wood’s first pitch of the seventh deep into the left-field seats. Soriano made things interesting with two outs in the ninth when he surrendered back-to-back infield singles, but he recovered to strike out Jason Heyward.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Despite the loss, Atlanta has won 19 of the last 26 meetings overall between the last two National League East champions. … Washington 3B Ryan Zimmerman did not play Sunday after complaining of right shoulder soreness following an errant throw to first base in Saturday’s loss. Zimmerman, who is awaiting the results of an MRI, told CSN Washington on Sunday that his surgically-repaired shoulder has “never really felt like this.” … Heyward, who suffered neck spasms and a headache after fouling off a pitch during Saturday’s win, batted leadoff and went 0-for-5.