updated 2:33 a.m. ET May 14, 2006

ATLANTA - Jeff Francoeur thrust his right arm toward the sky, sprinted around the bases much faster than he needed to and leaped into the arms of his teammates, who turned home plate into a mosh pit.

What a way to celebrate his first career grand slam.

Francoeur homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, finishing off a five-run rally that gave the Atlanta Braves a stunning 8-5 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.

“I love those situations,” said Francoeur, who brings a football mentality to the baseball field. “If you don’t love ’em, you’re in the wrong sport. It’s games like this that keep bringing you back.”

Francoeur doesn’t even mind failing.

Last month, he came up in the ninth against San Diego with two outs, two runners on and the Braves trailing 4-3. Trevor Hoffman struck out Francoeur to end the game, but the 22-year-old outfielder savored his chance and looked forward to the next one.

When Chad Cordero hung a slider on a 1-0 pitch, Francoeur drove it deep into the left-field seats.

“It’s just you against him, you against the closer,” he said. “It’s a chance to be on the greatest stage. Sometimes you do it, sometimes you don’t. But it’s the greatest feeling.”

Trailing 5-3 heading to their final at-bat, the Braves quickly rallied against Cordero (1-1). He gave up three hits on his first three pitches: a leadoff homer by Brian McCann, followed by sharp singles from Ryan Langerhans and Marcus Giles.

Edgar Renteria, Atlanta’s leading hitter, attempted to bunt the runners over but got it a little too close to the mound, allowing Cordero to get a force on Langerhans at third. After Chipper Jones loaded the bases with an infield single, Cordero still had a chance to escape the mess when Andruw Jones took a called third streak.

Then came the biggest mistake of all to Francoeur, who had already extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a run-scoring double in the first.

“Pitching is getting three outs,” Cordero said. “I thought if I got Andruw, I could get the last out.”

Francoeur celebrated wildly after crossing home, actually butting heads with Chipper Jones but feeling no pain.

Not so for Jones.

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“Chipper is mad at me,” Francoeur said with a smile. “He said next time he’ll keep his helmet on.”

Chris Reitsma (1-1) earned the win with a scoreless ninth. The Braves won for the fifth time in six games and remained six games behind the New York Mets in the NL East.

Alfonso Soriano hit two-run homer and Matt LeCroy added a solo shot for the Nationals, who were on verge of handing Jorge Sosa his sixth straight loss. Cordero let the Atlanta starter off the hook.

“It was pretty obvious what happened,” Cordero said. “I gave up a couple of hits and a few home runs. I stunk.”

Sosa was pretty bad, too. He gave up nine hits and five runs in 5 2-3 innings, his ERA climbing to 6.52 and his record staying at 0-5. A year ago, he was one of baseball’s biggest surprises, going 13-3 with a 6.52 ERA.

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