ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Dylan Crews homered in the ninth inning, C.J. Abrams also hit a solo homer and the Washington Nationals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 on Saturday.
The Nationals look to win a franchise record-tying sixth consecutive road series when the teams finish off the three-game set Sunday.
Mitchell Parker (3-3) worked 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, and Brad Lord threw three shutout innings. Clayton Beeter finished for his fifth save, striking out Ben Williamson with the tying run on second base to end it.
Ian Seymor (3-1) took the loss, allowing three runs on seven hits. Tampa Bay lost at home for the 10th time in 35 games.
Washington starter Cade Cavalli, scratched from the lineup the previous day due to illness, labored through 2 2/3 innings. But despite loading the bases in each of the first two innings and allowing six hits, Cavalli limited the damage to two runs.
After Junior Caminero put the Rays up 1-0 on a sacrifice fly in the first, Washington answered with Abrams’ 16th home run of the season and a double by Nasim Nunez in the top of the second. Chandler Simpson singled in Caminero in the bottom off the third to make it 2-2.
Recommended for you
Andres Chaparro put Washington in front for good with a squib grounder in front of home plate that brought home Keibert Ruiz in the fifth inning.
Up next
Washington LHP Andrew Alvarez (1-0, 3.49 ERA) was scheduled to face RHP Nick Martinez (6-2, 2.60 ERA) on Sunday.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.