James Wood had a pair of two-run doubles out of the leadoff spot, MacKenzie Gore combined with three relievers for a three-hitter and the Washington Nationals spoiled Justin Verlander’s strikeout milestone with an 8-0 thumping of the host San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon.
Making his 546th career start, Verlander (1-9) began the day three strikeouts shy of becoming 10th in major league history to reach 3,500 in his career. He did not take long to reach that mark, as he struck out three in the first inning and earned a standing ovation from the big crowd.
The rest of the afternoon’s highlights belonged to the Nationals, who scored four times in the second inning and never looked back en route to a second win in the three-game series. Wood’s first double opened the scoring with two outs, after which CJ Abrams bombed his 15th home run of the season for the 4-0 lead.
Paul DeJong made it 5-0 in the fourth and 6-0 in the sixth with a pair of RBI singles, before Wood completed the game’s scoring by driving in two with his second double in the seventh.
Verlander was pulled after five innings, having served up five runs and 11 hits. He walked one and struck out six, giving him 3,503 for his career, six fewer than Walter Johnson, who currently resides in the No. 9 spot on the all-time list.
Coming off a disastrous effort in which he was bombed for eight runs in three innings at home by the Athletics, Gore (5-12) struck out 10 in six shutout innings. He allowed just three hits — all singles — and one walk.
Cole Henry, PJ Poulin and Clayton Beeter followed up with one scoreless inning apiece, combining for five strikeouts, in recording a combined shutout for Washington.
DeJong and Josh Bell had three hits apiece for the Nationals, who totaled 17 hits, their second-most this season. Abrams, Riley Adams and Daylen Lile joined Wood with two hits each, helping the Nationals win a series for the first time since July 26-28 against the Minnesota Twins.
Heliot Ramos, Matt Chapman and Patrick Bailey accounted for the three total hits for the Giants, who lost at home for the 10th time in their last 11 games.
–Field Level Media
