WASHINGTON -- The Washington Nationals appeared headed for another sleepy defeat in which its offense continued to sputter against solid pitching from the Milwaukee Brewers.

Then the bottom of the eighth inning happened.

The Washington bats erupted for seven runs against the shell-shocked Brewers and the Nationals completed an unlikely 8-5 victory on Wednesday night, keyed by a clutch two-out, two-run double from Ryan Zimmerman.

"I faced (Jared) Hughes plenty of times with Pittsburgh. It's not an easy at-bat," Zimmerman said. "He didn't make a terrible pitch, just kind of away. I finally put a good swing on a pitch. The last week or two has been a struggle for me so it felt nice to kind of hit a ball and get rewarded for it."

The Nationals had gone 17 innings in the course of three games without scoring until Daniel Murphy's solo home run in the seventh inning made it 2-1. Still, Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson appeared to be in complete control.

"We'd done a nice job of it for seven times through (the lineup)," Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. "The eighth time just didn't happen."

Nelson opened the eighth with a four-pitch walk to No. 8 hitter Matt Wieters, ending his night after seven-plus innings. Jacob Barnes (3-2) came on and pinch-hitter Adrian Sanchez put down a bunt that resulted in pinch-runner Pedro Severino being thrown out at second.

But Brian Goodwin chopped a double over first and Wilmer Difo had a seeing-eye RBI single between first and second to tie the score at 2. Josh Hader came in for Milwaukee and struck out Bryce Harper, who was ejected by home plate umpire Chris Segal after whiffing.

Zimmerman then blasted his double to right off Hughes and the floodgates opened for the Nationals, who wound up sending 11 men to the plate in the inning, scoring seven runs.

"It's very frustrating," Barnes said. "You think you execute some pitches and you look back and balls are bouncing over people's heads and finding holes. Unfortunately, that's how the game goes. It's not one of the better days. It's all inches in this game."

Ryan Madson (3-4) pitched a scoreless inning to pick up the win.

"I wish we had gotten it going long before that. I don't know. We were due," Baker said. "We'd been shut out for like 16 innings, which is hard to do against this club.

"Sometimes you go through streaks where you're just not getting hits. But we were hitting the ball hard. But their unorthodox defense came into play. It really helped them a lot. I don't know. It just got to be like a feeding frenzy."

Washington reliever Sean Doolittle allowed three runs in the top of the ninth, but he closed the game out by striking out Domingo Santana for the final out.

Santana hit a 476-foot home run off Washington starter Gio Gonzalez in the first inning, his 17th homer of the season, and Lewis Brinson added his first major league home run in the ninth.

Gonzalez was sharp for the Nationals, retiring nine straight Brewers at one point and finishing his seven-inning start allowing five hits and eight strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.81. He was matched pitch for pitch by Nelson, who also retired nine straight hitters while finishing with 10 strikeouts.

Harper singled in the first inning for the Nationals, extending his career-high hitting streak to 18 games, tied with Houston's Jose Altuve for the longest active streak in the majors.

NOTES: The Nationals unveiled the 2018 All-Star Game logo during a press conference that featured MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, team ownership and several players. The game at Nationals Park will be the first All-Star affair in D.C. in 49 years. "That's far too long," Manfred said. ... Milwaukee RHP Matt Garza was placed on the 10-day DL retroactive to July 23 with a right lower leg strain. Garza said he hurt his calf during a throwing session. ... The Brewers recalled OF Lewis Brinson from Triple-A to replace Garza on the roster. Brinson was hitting .345 with 10 homers and 43 RBIs. ... Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg (forearm) will be placed on the DL and the team plans to call up RHP Erick Fedde from Triple-A Syracuse to take Strasburg's spot in the rotation Saturday. ... Milwaukee made its trade for RHP Anthony Swarzak official, although the pitcher won't be activated until Thursday. Swarzak was 4-3 with a 2.23 ERA and one save in 41 appearances with the Chicago White Sox. ... Milwaukee optioned OF Brett Phillips to Triple-A after the game. Phillips hit .229 in 15 games with the Brewers.