Pinch hitter Joey Meneses belted a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh inning to lift the Washington Nationals past the visiting Chicago White Sox 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Down 3-1, Washington put runners on first and third with one out in the seventh against reliever Aaron Bummer (4-5). After Bummer fanned Drew Millas, Bryan Shaw took over on the mound and Meneses greeted him by hitting his 12th homer of the season.
The Nationals (67-85) won for the second time in their past eight games.
Luis Robert Jr. and Yoan Moncada homered for the White Sox (58-94), who took their sixth loss in eight games.
Chicago trailed 4-2 before rallying in the ninth against Kyle Finnegan, with Robert’s leadoff double and Moncada’s one-out single producing a run. The game ended with two runners on base, as Elvis Andrus lined out to right to seal Finnegan’s 26th save.
White Sox starter Jose Urena pitched six strong innings and was in line to notch his first victory since August 2022, when he was pitching for the Colorado Rockies. Urena, who is 0-6 combined with the Rockies and the White Sox this year, held the Nationals to one run and four hits while striking out four without a walk.
Nationals right-hander Jackson Rutledge made his second career major league appearance, and this one went much better. He yielded only six hits, though two of those were homers, and two runs in 6 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out two. In his debut last Wednesday at Pittsburgh, Rutledge yielded seven runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Moncada broke a 1-1 tie with his ninth home run of the season on Rutledge’s first pitch of the inning.
Robert Garcia (2-2) got the win after retiring both batters he faced to complete the top of the seventh.
Robert, who went 3-for-4, hit his 37th home run of the season in the fourth inning for a 1-0 Chicago lead. He had gone his first 12 September games without a long ball before hitting one out Monday as the White Sox won the opener of the three-game series 6-1.
Washington tied the game in the sixth when Jacob Young led off with a triple and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly from Lane Thomas.
–Field Level Media
