​WASHINGTON (AP) — Ben Rice delivered a go-ahead two-run triple in the eighth inning to lift the New York Yankees to a 5-3 comeback victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday, marking the Yankees’ third consecutive win when trailing. The win also capped a three-game sweep in which New York overcame a late deficit in the ninth and two more in the eighth, cementing a stretch of momentum that has them riding four wins in a row overall for the first time since June 13-17.
Rice’s triple came with runners on first and second against Andrew Alvarez (2-3). It was Alvarez’s fourth straight curveball of the at-bat, and Rice blasted it off the wall as center fielder Dylan Crews couldn’t reach it. The hit cleared the bases, giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead and putting Ryan Yarbrough (2-0) in position to secure the win. Paul Blackburn worked the final six Washington outs for his first save.
In the ninth, José Caballero added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly, giving New York a two-run cushion. The Yankees improved to 6-34 this season when trailing after seven innings, and half of those come in this series alone.
Washington wasted no time getting on the board. James Wood led off the bottom of the first with a homer, his 28th of the year, and Curtis Mead followed suit for the Nationals. Wood’s leadoff homer ties a Nationals single-season record with Alfonso Soriano from 2006 for the most leadoff homers in a season, with Soriano previously holding the mark at nine. Cody Bellinger sparked the Yankees’ offense in the fifth inning, leading off with a double and scoring on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s RBI single. After a wild pitch advanced Chisholm to second, Austin Wells delivered a two-out RBI single to pull New York within one at 2-1.
Mead then tied the game by homering off a pinch-hit appearance in the sixth. In the seventh, a throwing error by Chisholm with two outs allowed a run to score, restoring Washington’s lead to 3-2.
For Washington, Cade Cavalli pitched six innings in his first start since serving a five-game suspension for his involvement in a bench-clearing incident in Boston on June 30. He allowed two runs and four hits in his return to the mound.
Meanwhile, Abimelec Ortiz made his major league debut for Washington, batting third and going 1-for-2 with a double before Mead came in to hit for him in the sixth.
The schedule resumes after the break with the Yankees hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, and the Nationals heading out on the road to the Oakland Athletics.