James Wood hit a home run, tripled, and scored four runs, leading the Washington Nationals to come back from a four-run deficit and beat the San Francisco Giants 11-5 on Tuesday night.
Wood also walked twice and stole two bases. The Nationals, who had lost five straight games before this, have now won three of their last four.
CJ Abrams hit a three-run homer, and Keibert Ruiz had three hits, including a solo home run. Washington ended up with 15 hits. Alex Call contributed with two RBI doubles and a walk.
“We went from real gloomy to boom,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “What they did was play hard for 27 outs. They really did. They started working good at-bats and they started driving the ball.”
MacKenzie Gore (7-9) had some trouble but managed to get through five innings for his first win since June 14. He allowed five runs on eight hits, walked two batters, and struck out six. In his last nine starts, Gore has a 1-4 record with a 7.24 ERA.
Three Washington relievers combined to pitch four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit to finish the game.
Michael Conforto hit a three-run homer, had a double, and walked for the Giants (57-58), who were trying to get above .500 for the first time since May 29.
San Francisco rookie Hayden Birdsong (3-1) had an early lead but couldn’t hold it. He was taken out after two-plus innings, having given up seven runs on five hits, including two home runs. He walked three batters, all of whom scored.
“Today he just really didn’t have command of anything early on,” manager Bob Melvin said. “And they were putting some good swings on him, putting a lot of pressure on him. Never really had kind of a break out there. But not his best.”
Heliot Ramos homered to give the Giants a 1-0 lead with one out in the top of the first inning. Gore then walked Matt Chapman with two outs and hit Mark Canha before Conforto hit his three-run homer to right center.
