James Wood had five hits that included his 23rd home run, Paul DeJong added a three-run blast and the Washington Nationals hung on to defeat the Detroit Tigers 11-7 on Thursday night, taking the rubber game of the series.
Alex Call had three hits and drove in three runs for Washington, which has won three of four. Wood had four singles, scored three runs and drove in two on the day he committed to participate in his first Home Run Derby.
Jake Irvin (7-3) survived a shaky first and went six innings, allowing three runs on three hits.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez won his 500th game.
Spencer Torkelson had a three-run homer for Detroit and Gleyber Torres had two hits.
Detroit’s Dietrich Enns (1-1), who pitched five scoreless innings against the Athletics in his first start of the season on June 26, allowed eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits in four-plus innings.
Colt Keith led off the game with a walk and Torres singled. Irvin struck out Wenceel Perez and Riley Greene, but Torkelson homered to center on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to make it 3-0.
Washington answered back in its half. CJ Abrams led off with a walk, Wood singled and Nathaniel Lowe walked with one out to load the bases for Call, who lined a two-run single to left. DeJong followed and smacked a 2-0 pitch to right center for a three-run homer and a 5-3 Washington lead.
In the second, Wood hit an opposite-field line drive just over the left field wall to make it 6-3.
Abrams led off the fourth with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Wood, and the lead was 7-3.
Detroit errors allowed the first two Nationals to reach in the fifth. After both runners advanced, Brady House grounded a single past the drawn-in infield, scoring Lowe and Call to make it 9-3.
Detroit rallied in the seventh. Parker Meadows singled with one out and consecutive two-out singles by Keith, Torres and Perez pulled the Tigers within 9-5.
In the eighth, Meadows provided an RBI single and another run scored on a Javier Baez groundout to make it 9-7. But Wood singled leading off the bottom half and Luis Garcia Jr. and Call provided run-scoring singles for the Nationals to restore the four-run cushion.
–Field Level Media
