James Wood had two hits including a two-run homer, Cade Cavalli pitched five solid innings and the Washington Nationals beat the visiting Miami Marlins 5-2 on Tuesday night.
Daylen Lile and Jacob Young added two hits and produced RBIs for Washington, which has won its last two after losing eight straight.
The Nationals improved to 55-83 on the season, while Miami fell to 65-74.
Cavalli (2-1) allowed two runs on four hits and struck out six. Jose A. Ferrer, the sixth Nationals’ pitcher of the evening, earned his sixth save with a perfect ninth.
Connor Norby had two hits and drove in two runs for Miami, which was held to four hits, all singles.
Marlins starter Adam Mazur (0-2) allowed five runs (four earned) on 10 hits over six innings.
The Marlins loaded the bases on two singles and a hit batter in the second, but Cavalli got Heriberto Hernandez to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Washington took a 2-0 lead in the second. Lile and Riley Adams opened with back-to-back doubles to make it 1-0. With one out, Paul DeJong grounded to third baseman Norby. When he attempted to tag Adams going to third, the ball came out of his glove and both runners were safe. Young followed with an RBI-single and the lead was 2-0.
CJ Abrams led off the third with a double, went to third on a ground out and scored on Lile’s two-out single to make it 3-0.
Augustin Ramirez walked leading off the Miami fourth and Liam Hicks hit into a force play. Otto Lopez (two hits) singled Hicks to third and went to second on a wild pitch. Norby then lined a single to right, scoring both runners to pull the Marlins within 3-2.
Young singled with two outs in the bottom half and Wood cracked his 27th homer of the season over the left field fence, increasing the lead to 5-2.
The Marlins could not take advantage of a pair of eighth inning walks, as Jackson Rutledge got Norby to fly out to right.
