"He waited until the figurative September of his career to hit his first home run Wednesday, but Derek Lowe hasn't waited quite until September to turn around his season.

Home runs by 39-year-old Chipper Jones and 38-year-old Lowe staked the Braves to an early lead in a 3-1 win against the Washington Nationals at Turner Field, and closer Craig Kimbrel pitched a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts for his major league rookie-record 41st save.

"That's a good night all the way around for the Braves," said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose team ended a two-game skid and remained 7-1/2 behind National League East leader Philadelphia.

The Braves' wild-card lead was nine games over St. Louis pending the outcome of the Cardinals' late game Wednesday.

"We're winding down and every win is big," said Lowe (9-12), who had a two-hit shutout and until Michael Morse homered to lead off the seventh inning. "We know where we stand in the division, but you can't get complacent just because you've built yourself a big lead [in the wild-card standings]. You can't just coast.

"You don't want to hope other people lose. You want to go out there and play like we have all year. The goal is still to try to catch the Phillies."

Kimbrel, who leads the majors in saves, broke the rookie record of 40 set last season by Neftali Feliz of the Texas Rangers. The Alabama native was pleased to set the record at Turner Field, pushing his scoreless streak to 34 appearances in the process.

"When those two games in New York got cancelled, I started thinking it would be pretty cool to be able to get it at home," said Kimbrel, who has allowed no runs, 13 hits and 10 walks with 59 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings during his scoreless streak since June 14.

He has converted 23 of 23 save opportunities during that torrid stretch of power pitching. He leads major league relievers in strikeouts by a wide margin with 107 in 65-2/3 innings."