Jeter Downs hit a walk-off single with two outs in Washington’s six-run ninth inning as the Nationals rallied to an 8-7 victory against the visiting Oakland Athletics, completing a three-game series sweep Sunday afternoon
Shaky relief from Oakland’s Trevor May in the ninth inning meant Kirby Snead (1-1) came on and issued a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Dominic Smith before shortstop Nick Allen’s error led to two runs to tie the game. Downs, who began the inning with a walk, won it with a single to center field
Washington’s Stone Garrett had a run-scoring double, a sacrifice fly and an RBI single to account for his team’s first three runs. Ildemaro Vargas had a sacrifice fly in the ninth
Teammate Keibert Ruiz, who smacked the game-winning home run in the ninth inning of Saturday night’s game, went 3-for-5. Joey Meneses had three hits and two runs and Michael Chavis added two hits
Zack Gelof hit solo home runs in the first and fifth innings and racked up four hits, but the Athletics lost for the ninth time in their last 12 games. Seth Brown also homered and drove in four runs for Oakland
Gelof’s seventh and eighth career home runs came in his 25th game in the major leagues. The Athletics scored more than two runs for the first time in five games
Joe La Sorsa (1-0) pitched two shutout innings for the victory — his first in the majors
Athletics starting pitcher Ken Waldichuk worked five innings and was in line for his first victory since July 5. He allowed one run on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Adrian Martinez followed Waldichuk by logging three innings, giving up one run and three hits
May came on for the ninth and yielded three hits, two walks and five runs (three earned) before Snead replaced him
Nationals starter Trevor Williams was drilled for five runs in 4 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and walking two. He has now given up six home runs in his past two starts and 10 in his past six
The Athletics struck for three first-inning runs, beginning with Gelof’s home run to center. Two batters later, Brown’s 11th home run of the season was a two-run blast
The Nationals, who are 10-2 in home games since the All-Star break, responded to score on Garrett’s first-inning double
Aledmys Diaz, who joined Brown with two hits, provided a run-scoring single in the third inning as Oakland stretched its lead to 4-1
Gelof’s second homer of the day gave him his first career multi-homer game
–Field Level Medi
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