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WASHINGTON -- The Washington Nationals returned to form and generated some momentum for their showdown with the New York Mets. Swell Water Bottle Sale .Bryce Harper hit the first of Washingtons three home runs, and the Nationals overpowered the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 Wednesday to avert a three-game sweep.Jose Lobaton and Ryan Zimmerman also connected for the NL East-leading Nationals, who open a four-game series Thursday night at second-place New York before heading into the All-Star break.Its critical because theyre chasing us and were trying to put some distance on them, Washington manager Dusty Baker said. Its very important.After watching the Nationals score a combined two runs in two games against the Brewers, Baker said before the finale, Were operating at a low energy level right now.Harper remedied that with a three-run shot in the first inning, the Nationals first long ball in three games. Lobaton made it 4-0 in the second and Zimmerman chased Brewers starter Matt Garza (1-2) with a two-run drive in the fifth for a 7-4 lead.Tanner Roark (8-5) allowed four runs and seven hits in seven innings for the Nationals. The right-hander also beat the Brewers on June 26 to help Washington dodge a three-game sweep.He pounded the strike zone, Harper said. When he goes out there, its usually a quick game and a lot of fun.Jonathan Papelbon worked the ninth for his 17th save in 19 chances.Afterward, the Nationals turned their attention toward their trip to New York, knowing a sweep either way would have a huge impact on the standings.How many games are we up on them? Four? Harper said. We could either be tied or up eight. Its plain and simple.Scooter Gennett had two RBI and stole home for the Brewers. Despite the loss, Milwaukee finished 4-2 against the Nationals to win the season series for the first since 2010.Builds our confidence knowing you can play with the best, Gennett said.Garza gave up seven runs, eight hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He is 1-5 with a 7.69 ERA in 10 starts against Washington.Behind in a lot of counts today and I had to pitch from behind and thats what happens, Garza said. You just put it in the back of your mind and get through it and get to the next one.The right-hander ran into difficulty almost immediately, giving up singles to Ben Revere and Jayson Werth before Harper hit his 18th home run, an opposite-field poke to left.After retiring the first six batters, Roark gave up five singles in the third. Milwaukee drew even when Gennett scored on the front end of a double steal.Stephen Drew hit a two-out RBI double in the bottom half for a 5-4 lead.MAKE SOME NOISEBaker is asking the home fans to crank up the volume in the second half of the season. Some of the guys on the team wish our fans were more boisterous and crazy, like we see at different stadiums on the road, he said. Taking into account the transient nature of Washington, Baker added, We realize a lot of fans are new. Were trying to win everybody over to us. We need their energy, big time.CLOSE CALLAccording to Major League Baseball, the 88-vote margin by which Chicago Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist defeated Washingtons Daniel Murphy to start in the All-Star Game (3,013,407 to 3,013,319) was the closest margin since 1982, when Manny Trillo defeated Steve Sax for NL 2B by 1,625 votes.WIN AND OUTBrewers: RHP Zach Davies, who started and won Tuesdays game, was optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs. 1B Andy Wilkins was recalled from the same minor league club.TRAINERS ROOMNationals: RHP Joe Ross (right shoulder inflammation) has been inactive since being placed on the DL on Sunday. Hes shut down right now. Were trying to get the inflammation out of there, Baker said.UP NEXTBrewers: After taking Thursday off, the Brewers welcome St. Louis for a three-game series leading up to the All-Star break.Nationals: The Nationals send rookie Lucas Giolito to the mound Thursday night. He pitched four scoreless innings in his debut. Swell Bottle Wood Cheap .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker. Swell Water Bottle Cheap . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night. http://www.swellwaterbottlesale.com/ . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. LONDON -- Venus Williams sighed at the reporters question.After getting to her first Wimbledon semifinal since 2009, and first at any Grand Slam tournament since a year later, she was asked what she learned in recent times, while dealing with an energy-sapping disease and a series of earlier-than-usual exits from majors.Its hard to say just one lesson, she began. Its easy to be afraid; you have to let fear go. Another lesson is you just have to believe in yourself. You just have to. Theres no way around it. Youve got to believe in yourself. No matter how things are stacked against you, you just have to, every time.Williams never lost that belief, the self-confidence that she still could compete at the highest level, the certainty that it made no sense to give up, to retire from the tour.The good part is, I always felt like I had the game. This is always a plus, when you know you have the game, said Williams, who owns seven Grand Slam titles, including five at the All England Club, but none since 2008. So you just have to keep working until things fall into place.At age 36, they have.On Friday at Wimbledon, Williams will meet No. 4-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany for a berth in the final. Kerber has won three of their previous five matchups.The American is the oldest woman to participate in a major semifinal since Martina Navratilova did it at Wimbledon in 1994 at age 37.Its nice to see, because she puts in the work, said David Witt, Williams coach. She hasnt been back, but not because of her play. Any given tournament, shes capable of beating anybody in the tournament. Its just a matter of winning six, seven matches in a row and keeping your level of play at a high level.Someone who knows all about that is Williams younger sister, No. 1-seeded Serena, who faces 50th-ranked Elena Vesnina in Fridays other semifinal. If VVesnina -- who has never so much as taken a set off Serena in five previous meetings -- were to pull off the upset, she would be the first unseeded woman to reach the Wimbledon final in the Open era, which began in 1968. sWell Traveler Sale. The 29-year-old Russian had never been past the fourth round at a major before this week.Serena, meanwhile, is bidding for her seventh Wimbledon championship and, of even more significance, her 22nd Grand Slam trophy overall, which would equal Steffi Graf for the most in the Open era (Margaret Court holds the all-time mark of 24).Serena has come close to drawing even with Graf before: At the U.S. Open last September, she lost to Roberta Vinci in the semifinals while aiming for a calendar-year Grand Slam; at the Australian Open in January, she lost to Kerber in the final; at the French Open in June, she lost to Garbine Muguruza in the final.Way back in 1999, the Williams sisters both reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Now here they are, almost 17 full years later, both in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the 11th time. On all 10 previous occasions, one or the other took home the trophy.If both win Thursday, they would play each other on Saturday in what would be the siblings ninth meeting in a Grand Slam final and fifth at Wimbledon.For Serena, it would mean shes participated in the last three major title matches, seven of the past eight.For Venus, it would be her first Grand Slam final since 2009, when she lost at Wimbledon to -- guess who? -- Serena.With everything shes been through, I think its built a ton of character in her, Serena said, and in me, just by being around her.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ' ' '