Washington, DC (Sports Network) - Lastings Milledge homered, walked twice and stole a base to help the Washington Nationals to a 4-2 win and a three- game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds at Nationals Park.

Austin Kearns was 3-for-4 with a run scored while Pete Orr and Wil Nieves recorded an RBI apeice for the Nationals, who rebounded nicely in the series after matching a season-high, nine-game losing streak.

Collin Balester (2-3) kept the Reds at bay for 5 1/3 frames, allowing one run on six hits and two walks. The young righty struck out five to pick up the win, his first in the last three decisions. Joel Hanrahan picked up his first career save despite allowing a run in the ninth. Hanrahan was named the closer after the Nationals dealt Jon Rauch to the Diamondbacks on July 22.

"I'm very happy the way we played this series, especially because we played clean baseball," Nationals skipper Manny Acta said. "That's what we needed to see, guys catching the ball and going all out. The whole bullpen have been throwing the ball extremely well. They deserve most of the credit today."

Johnny Cueto (7-11) ran into trouble with a costly four-run first, three of which he was charged with, giving up seven hits and one walk while fanning four over six frames in extending his winless streak to five straight starts going 0-3 over that span.

Joey Votto was 3-for-4 with a home run while Corey Patterson added two hits including a home run for the Reds, who have dropped eight of their last nine overall.

After Cueto got the first two Nats to go down swinging, Milledge turned on an inside fastball in driving his ninth home run of the year out to left. Kearns and Kory Casto reached on a pair of singles and Orr lined a single to left that Adam Dunn misjudged, allowing two runs to score. Nieves then flared an RBI single into shallow right field completing a four-run opening inning.

The Reds got on the board in the sixth with a leadoff home run to center from Votto, his 14th blast of the season. Brandon Phillips then drew a one-out walk and Dunn reached on an infield single bringing Steven Shell out from the bullpen. Shell proceeded to retire Edwin Encarnacion on strikes and Patterson grounded out to second to preserve the Nats three-run advantage.

Hanrahan gave up a home run to Patterson in the ninth but rebounded to get David Ross and then Javier Valentin swinging to end the game.