WASHINGTON — Break up the Yankees.
Two outs away from taking another step back after Thursday’s eruption against the Rays, Jazz Chisholm Jr. saved the day to secure the Yankees back-to-back wins for the first time in over two weeks.
Trailing by a run and facing one-time Yankee lefty Matt Krook with one out in the ninth inning, Chisholm clobbered a two-run shot into the second deck to lift the Yankees to a dramatic 5-3 win over the Nationals on Friday night at Nationals Park.
After Chisholm’s blast, Austin Wells crushed his second home run in as many days (after going 23 straight games without one), providing some breathing room for David Bednar in his second inning of work to finish off the game.
The consecutive wins are the Yankees’ first since June 23-24, going 2-11 in between, as they try to finally string some momentum together to fully snap out of their recent skid.
After first pitch was delayed two hours by storms in the area, the Yankees (52-42) got solo home runs from Ben Rice and Jasson Domínguez to take a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning before Tim Hill gave up back-to-back home runs to Keibert Ruiz and James Wood, putting the Nationals ahead 3-2.
But after wasting chances to add on throughout the game, the Yankees finally cashed in during the ninth inning against Krook. With one out, Domínguez got things started with a single from the right side. Chisholm came up next, got a sweeper over the heart of the plate and did not miss, drilling a moonshot that he admired for the 4-3 lead.
The Nationals (48-47) then brought in righty Justin Lawrence, against whom Wells went deep before the Yankees loaded the bases with a run of quality at-bats, only to waste a chance to really break things open.
Ryan Weathers turned in a strong outing against the game’s highest-scoring offense, holding the Nationals to just one run across 5 ¹/₃ innings despite receiving some shoddy defense behind him. The left-hander changed up his pitch mix — leaning on his sweeper, slider and changeup and throwing just seven four-seam fastballs — to scatter six hits and no walks while striking out six.
Coming off a 12-run, 14-hit explosion Thursday afternoon at Tropicana Field, the Yankees tried to pick up where they left off. Rice certainly did, crushing a solo home run in the top of the first inning against lefty opener Carson Palmquist for his 29th of the year and seventh in his last 10 games.
One out later, Paul Goldschmidt snapped an 0-for-34 skid with a single through the right side and Cody Bellinger, who has been in the midst of his own slump of late, followed with another single to put runners on the corners.
But Domínguez could not keep the rally alive, striking out to end the threat.
The Nationals drove up Weathers’ pitch count early, but his defense did not help either in that regard. With one out in the second inning, former Yankees prospect Andrés Chaparro roped a ground ball to the shortstop hole where José Caballero tried to backhand it but had it bounce off his glove. Nasim Nuñez hit a chopper to third base that Amed Rosario misplayed after getting stuck in between on whether to charge it or stay back. He chose the latter and could not handle the hop, allowing Nuñez to reach safely.
Weathers picked up his defense, though, getting a groundout and a strikeout to strand both runners.
But the Nationals tied the game in the third after Wood led off with a double and took third on a single from Curtis Mead. Weathers was able to limit the damage by getting Dylan Crews to ground into a double play, but Wood scored from the back door to tie it.
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In the fourth, the Yankees defense hurt and then helped Weathers. With one out, Chaparro hit a grounder to third that Rosario fielded cleanly but then skipped the throw past first baseman Goldschmidt, allowing the runner to get all the way to third base.
The Yankees then brought the infield in for Nuñez, who hit a grounder to shortstop, where Caballero fielded it and fired home to eventually nab Chaparro in a pickle, squashing the Nationals’ threat.
