Joey Meneses homered in the seventh inning and the Washington Nationals produced rare offense late in the game with a two-run rally in the eighth to squeak past the Minnesota Twins 3-2 on Friday night in cold Minneapolis.

The Nationals’ late two-out rally gave them their first lead all night. They won for just the second time in their last eight games. The Twins have dropped five of their last six.

Erasmo Ramirez (1-1) was the winning pitcher in relief. Hunter Harvey, who struck out the side in the eighth, and Kyle Finnegan, who notched his fourth save, also each logged a shutout inning.

Minnesota starting pitcher Tyler Mahle was unscathed through six innings before surrendering the home run to Meneses. That was one of three hits he allowed in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.

Washington had been shut out in its past two games — blankings by visiting Baltimore on Tuesday and Wednesday nights — and the team was off Monday and Thursday.

So the Nationals hadn’t scored since Sunday when Meneses’ seventh-inning homer cut their deficit to 2-1. It was his first homer of the season, coming in his 18th game.

Washington went ahead in the eighth, tying the game on Lane Thomas’ single. Thomas, who went to second on the throw to the plate on a failed attempt to nab CJ Abrams, scored on Keibert Ruiz’s single. Abrams ignited the rally with a double.

Griffin Jax (1-2) took the loss.

The Twins opened the scoring on Joey Gallo’s fifth home run of the year to lead off the third inning. They added another run in the inning on Max Kepler’s sacrifice fly.

But Nationals starter Trevor Williams made it through six innings, holding the Twins to two runs, four hits and one walk.

–Field Level Media