Rookie James Wood hit two home runs, MacKenzie Gore pitched six innings allowing just two hits, and the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 4-3 on Sunday.
Washington won the last three games of the four-game series and ended up with an 11-2 record against the Marlins this season.
Jonah Bride homered for Miami, which secured a last-place finish in the NL East for the first time since 2019. The Marlins lost six of seven games on their road trip to Pittsburgh and Washington.
This was Wood’s first game with multiple home runs. He hit a 435-foot home run to center field with two outs in the fifth inning off Miami starter Adam Oller. In the eighth inning, he led off with a 426-foot homer to left-center against Declan Cronin.
“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 hadn’t homered since August 18 at Philadelphia and now has seven home runs since his debut on July 1.
“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 one unearned run, struck out five, and walked two. He has a 2-1 record with a 1.95 ERA over his last five starts and has lowered his season ERA from 4.66 to 4.17 during that period.
This was also the fourth time in five starts that Gore completed six innings. He had only done so once in his previous 15 starts between May 29 and August 17.
Jose Ferrer allowed two Marlins to reach scoring position with one out in the ninth inning but managed to get David Hensley’s RBI groundout and Nick Fortes to fly out, earning his first save in 64 career appearances.
