Foster Griffin’s seven innings of one-run ball and home runs by CJ Abrams and Dylan Crews led the visiting Washington Nationals to a 5-2 win over the Athletics on Sunday afternoon in West Sacramento, Calif.
Griffin (11-2), who picked up his third win in as many starts, only struck out two but induced 12 groundball outs. Two of those grounders resulted in double plays as Griffin limited the damage from the eight hits he allowed.
Abrams’ and Crews’ back-to-back long balls were the big hits in a three-run fifth that added to an early Washington lead. Curtis Mead and Harry Ford had the other RBIs for the Nationals.
Shea Langeliers went 2-for-4 with a double while Alika Williams hit a pair of two-baggers out of the No. 9 spot for the A’s, who out-hit Washington 11-7 in a losing effort.
Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson each had an RBI for the Athletics. First baseman Tommy White was 0-for-2 with a walk after doubling in his MLB debut on Saturday.
Jacob Lopez (4-4) took the loss, giving up two runs in 4 1/3 innings.
The teams traded runs in the third to open the scoring. Nasim Nunez walked to lead off the inning and then stole second and third base before coming home to score on Mead’s RBI groundout.
Soderstrom then leveled it for the A’s in the bottom of the frame with a two-out RBI single, scoring Williams after the first of his two doubles.
Washington regained the lead in the fourth on an RBI double by Ford and they added on with Abrams’ two-run shot and Crews’ solo homer off reliever Elvis Alvarado an inning later.
Jonah Heim and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer hit two-out singles off Tom Cosgrove in the eighth to mount a late-game rally for the Athletics, but Clayton Beeter stepped in to force pinch hitter Carlos Cortes to ground out to first for the third out.
Wilson hit an RBI single in the ninth off Beeter, who recorded the final four outs to earn his eighth save of the season.
Washington took two games in each team’s first series out of the All-Star break. The Nationals won the opener 23-4 on Friday and the A’s took Saturday’s game 15-1.
–Field Level Media
