WASHINGTON -- Nationals manager Frank Robinson said that left fielder Alfonso Soriano deserved to be on the top of every game story after stealing his 40th base of the season early on Saturday night, becoming just the fourth player in baseball history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season.

But Robinson said not to forget the actions of Austin Kearns, Brian Schneider and Bernie Castro, who drove in two runs apiece to help the Nationals defeat the Brewers, 8-5, in front of 24,252 at RFK Stadium. With the win, Washington snapped its modest two-game losing streak.

With David Bush on the mound, Soriano led off the game with a single and stole second base on a 2-0 pitch to Felipe Lopez. It was Soriano's fourth attempt to steal his 40th base. The Diamondbacks threw him out three times in Arizona, and he didn't make an attempt on Friday against the Brewers.

"When I slid, I saw the fans screaming," Soriano said. "When I was safe, I said, 'I did it.' I'm so happy. I was thinking about my family. I'm glad they could see me do 40-40."

The Brewers jumped on the board first with a two-run homer by Prince Fielder in the top of the first, but after his stolen base, Soriano scored on a single by Kearns to cut the deficit to 2-1. The game went back and fourth for the first inning and a half, but the Nationals put the game away by the seventh inning.

The score was tied a 3 in the bottom of the second inning before the Nationals took the lead off Brewers starter Dave Bush. Outfielder Nook Logan stole third base and came home on a throwing error by catcher Mike Rivera to give Washington a 4-3 lead.

"He gave up a couple of hits and a couple of runs," Logan said of Bush. "I didn't think he would pay that much attention to me. He was getting into a rhythm of throwing to the plate. I was putting pressure on them."

In the fourth inning, Castro tripled home Brian Schneider to make it a two-run game.

The Brewers made it 5-4 with Corey Hart's run-scoring single off Pedro Astacio, who went 5 2/3 innings to pick up his fourth win. After Hart's single, the Nationals took over.

Kearns doubled home Ryan Zimmerman in the seventh off Jose Capellan, while Schneider followed with a sacrifice fly to drive home Nick Johnson. Castro then drove in Kearns with a triple.

"Bernie had a very good night offensively," Robinson said. "Kearns and Schneider had a good night. It was good night offensively, and we have been scoring some runs. The bullpen did another good job."

The offense has been impressive during the second half, hitting .270 after the All-Star break, compared to .257 during the first half of the season. Schneider wondered what might have been if the Nationals had swung the bats better during the first half of the season.

"That's a question everybody has," he said. "You look at the numbers compared to the first half -- if our pitching staff was healthy ... There are a lot of ifs. Everybody can sit here and analyze it. It's the way the team is hitting now. We are still putting up some runs and pitching all right. Where would it be if we had the healthy pitching and no one got hurt?"

"We are having a good time playing [right now]," Robinson added. "We still have 14 games left, and we'll continue to play hard."