Diamondbacks allow 4 homers to drop rubber matchup vs. Nationals, lose wild card tiebreaker

CJ Abrams and James Wood each homered twice and had three RBIs as the Washington Nationals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-7 on Sunday to take two of three games in their weekend series.

The Nationals clinched the season series against the Diamondbacks, 4-2, with the win and now have the tiebreaker over Arizona in the National League wild-card standings. The surprising Nationals (54-52) moved within a game of Arizona (55-51) for the final National League wild-card spot.

The Diamondbacks led 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning when Wood hit a two-run shot off Kohl Drake that tied the score at 4-4. Three batters later, Abrams connected for a two-run drive off Jonathan Loáisiga that put Washington ahead for good.

The 25-year-old Abrams leads the majors with 82 RBIs. He has 27 home runs this season, breaking the franchise record for shortstops set by Ian Desmond with 25 in 2012. Dylan Crews and Abrams each had three of Washington’s 15 hits.

Down 10-5 going into the ninth inning, the D-backs rattled off two runs to make it 10-7 and had bases loaded with Tyler Locklear up as the go-ahead run with two outs. Nationals closer Clayton Beeter was able to get Locklear to ground out to end the game.

Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo each hit a homer in the loss.

Diamondbacks’ next game

Following the loss, the D-backs start a critical three-game series at the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.

The Pirates (54-52) are one game back of the D-backs in the wild card standings but hold the season series lead over Arizona 2-1.

Merrill Kelly (8-8, 5.12 ERA) is set to take the mound for the D-backs against Pirates righty Mitch Keller (6-7, 4.90).

First pitch from PNC Park is at 3:40 p.m. MST. Listen to the game on 98.7, the Arizona Sports app or online.

Arizona Sports’ Bailey Leasure contributed to this story. 

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