Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - A day after Max Scherzer's brilliant no- hitter, Gio Gonzalez followed his teammate's example with a solid performance on the mound.

Gonzalez fired seven scoreless innings and received plenty of early offensive support to help the Washington Nationals complete a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 9-2 victory.

Gonzalez (5-4) improved to 3-0 in six career starts against the Pirates after surrendering just four hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

"I was attacking the strike zone and more aggressive," Gonzalez said. "It's safe to say these guys played hard."

Yunel Escobar and Bryce Harper homered for the Nationals, who outscored the Pirates by a dominant 19-3 margin in the series. Overall, Washington has won seven straight games against the NL Central foe.

Corey Hart hit a two-run homer in the ninth for Pittsburgh, which entered the series with eight straight wins. Charlie Morton (5-1) was pounded for nine runs, eight hits and a walk, while just retiring two batters.

"Nothing that I was doing was working," said Morton. "That's hard because you are looking for something that will work."

The Nationals helped Gonzalez by setting a new team record for runs in the first inning.

Harper followed Escobar's single with a two-run blast into the second deck in right field, his 24th homer of the season. Clint Robinson then doubled and came home on Jose Lobaton's single two batters later.

Ian Desmond followed with a single and stole second to place runners on second and third, and Michael Taylor plated Lobaton with an RBI single, Desmond scored on Morton's botched pickoff attempt and Gonzalez got in on the action with a run-scoring double to extend the lead to 6-0.

After Denard Span walked, Escobar ended Morton's outing with a three-run shot to left for a 9-0 lead. Vance Worley took the mound and promptly struck out Harper to get the Pirates out of a disastrous opening frame.

After mustering just one hit through the first five innings, the Pirates opened the sixth with singles from Neil Walker and Josh Harrison. Gonzalez, however, recorded three straight outs to escape the frame.

Matt Thornton relieved Gonzalez and worked around a one-out hit in the eighth. Hart hit his two-run homer off Felipe Rivero in the ninth to provide Pittsburgh with its lone runs.

Game Notes

Washington closed out their third sweep of the season and first of Pittsburgh since taking a three-game set at Nationals Park from Aug. 15-17, 2014 ... Hart's homer ended a stretch of 24 2/3 straight scoreless innings by Washington pitcher. The Nationals' club record was 23, coming on June 22-25, 2005 and Aug. 1-4, 2014 ... Gonzalez has never allowed more than three runs against the Pirates ... Harper has reached base safely in 17-of-18 games in June.