WASHINGTON (AP) — Trent Grisham’s two-run homer in of the eighth inning gave the Yankees another comeback victory over the Washington Nationals’ bullpen, 4-2 on Saturday, giving Aaron Boone his 750th win as New York’s manager.
James Wood homered on Cam Schlittler’s first pitch of the game, and Curtis Mead went deep two batters later to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead, which they held until the eighth. Then Orlando Ribalta gave up a one-out solo shot to Ryan McMahon and a walk to Ben Rice.
Clayton Beeter (3-2) relieved Ribalta, and Grisham greeted him with a drive to the second deck in right field for a 3-2 lead. Paul Goldschmidt followed with a solo homer, his first long ball since June 24.
Washington leads the major leagues with 27 blown saves. The Nationals took a one-run lead into the ninth in the series opener Friday night, only for the Yankees to score three runs .
Brent Headrick (5-1) got the win in relief. David Bednar, who pitched two innings Friday, worked the ninth for his 18th save in 20 chances and his 16th straight scoreless outing.
The Yankees and Nationals rank 1-2 in baseball in home runs, and 13 of the 14 runs so far in this series have come via the long ball.
New York has won three straight for the first time since winning four in a row from June 13-17. They Yankees had dropped 11 of their previous 13.
Schlittler had gone eight straight road starts without allowing more than one earned run, but Washington needed only three batters to end that streak. Wood hit his 27th homer and Mead followed with a one-out drive.
Schlittler was sharp after that, working into the seventh inning, but those early runs were enough to raise his American League-leading ERA from 2.01 to 2.05.
Washington’s Miles Mikolas allowed four hits in four innings after opener PJ Poulin got the first five outs.
Wood had his second straight three-hit game and has nine leadoff homers this season, tying the Nationals’ record set by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.
Up next
New York tries for a three-game sweep with Will Warren (7-4) starting Sunday. The Nationals had not announced a starter.
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