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Brad Lord worked five solid innings for his first career win as the visiting Washington Nationals avoided a three-game sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies with a 4-2 victory Thursday.

A 25-year-old rookie, Lord (1-3) allowed two runs and six hits with a walk and four strikeouts. Jose Ferrer logged two innings of relief before giving way to Jorge Lopez in the eighth and Kyle Finnegan in the ninth.

Luis Garcia Jr. had two hits and an RBI and also stole home for the Nationals. Trea Turner (3-for-4) led Philadelphia’s offensive attack, while Nick Castellanos chipped in two hits for the Phillies, who had won their previous four games.

Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead on Alec Bohm’s single in the fifth inning, but Washington answered with four runs against Taijuan Walker (1-3) in the ensuing frame.

CJ Abrams led off with a double and scored two batters later on Nathaniel Lowe’s base hit to right. Keibert Ruiz then smacked one to first, but Bryce Harper couldn’t handle it, leading to a three-base error that made it 2-1.

Garcia followed with a single to extend the lead to 3-1. Shortly thereafter, the Nationals had runners on first and third with one out when the team executed a double steal on reliever Orion Kerkering that allowed Garcia to scamper home for the fourth run of the inning.

In the bottom of the frame, Castellanos’ infield hit plated a run for the Phillies, but Ferrer struck out Max Kepler and Bohm with two runners on to escape the jam.

Philadelphia threatened again in the eighth with two runners on against Lopez, but Castellanos bounced into a double play to finish the frame.

Finnegan allowed a two-out triple to Johan Rojas in the ninth but promptly retired Rafael Marchan on a liner to center to snap Washington’s three-game slide. It was his 10th save of the season.

Walker was charged with four runs (one earned) and four hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.

–Field Level Media