Rookie James Wood homers twice as Nationals defeat Marlins 4-3

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Rookie James Wood homered twice, MacKenzie Gore pitched six innings of two-hit ball, and the Washington Nationals defeated the Miami Marlins 4-3 on Sunday.

Washington won the last three in the four-game series and finished 11-2 against the Marlins this season.

Jonah Bride homered for Miami, which clinched a last-place finish in the NL East for the first time since 2019. The Marlins dropped six of seven on its road trip to Pittsburgh and Washington.

It was the first multi-homer game for Wood. He ripped a 435-foot shot to center with two outs in the fifth inning off Miami starter Adam Oller, then led off the eighth against Declan Cronin with a 426-foot blast to left-center.

“Right now, if he gets the ball in the strike zone, he needs to pull the trigger a lot more,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “Today he did that, and he hit it high and far, so that’s a good sign for him. Hopefully he continues to do that here for the next 10 days or so and he finishes up strong.”

Wood had not homered since Aug. 18 at Philadelphia. He has seven home runs since his July 1 debut.

“You try not to, but sometimes I feel like I haven’t hit one in a while,” Wood said. “It felt good to get one today.”

Gore (9-12) allowed an unearned run and struck out five while walking two. He is 2-1 with a 1.95 ERA over his last five starts and has lowered his season ERA from 4.66 to 4.17 in that span.

It was also the fourth time in five starts the left-hander completed six innings. Gore had done so once in his 15 previous starts between May 29 and Aug. 17.

Jose Ferrer allowed two Marlins to reach scoring position with one out in the ninth, but induced David Hensley’s RBI groundout and got Nick Fortes to fly out to secure his first save in 64 career appearances.

“The adrenaline I had in the bullpen in that moment tripled,” Ferrer said through an interpreter of navigating the jam. “(It was) very different.”

The Nationals managed only one hit in the first three innings against Oller (1-4), then collected four in a row to erase a 1-0 deficit and take a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

Andrés Chaparro doubled into the corner in right with one out, then came around on Luis García Jr.’s single. José Tena followed with a single, and Keibert Ruiz then singled to right to score García.

Oller allowed three runs on six hits in five innings.

Bride greeted reliever Eduardo Salazar with a homer to lead off the seventh.

The Marlins opened the scoring in the third when Washington center fielder Jacob Young dropped Jhonny Pereda’s leadoff fly on the warning track for a two-base error. Pereda scored three batters later on Jake Burger’s sacrifice fly.

Miami was 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

“We just couldn’t scratch anything together until that ninth inning,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Nationals: SS CJ Abrams (sore left shoulder) was out of the lineup for the third consecutive day. … RHP Trevor Williams (flexor strain) allowed two runs while striking out four over 4 1/3 innings in a rehabilitation appearance Sunday for Double-A Harrisburg.

UP NEXT

Marlins: Off Monday. RHP Darren McCaughan (0-0, 7.06 ERA) starts the opener a three-game series at home Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Nationals: RHP Jake Irvin (10-12, 4.19), who is 7-4 with a 3.94 ERA on the road, draws the start Monday as Washington begins a three-game series at the New York Mets.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb