Wood, Three Homers Bury Boston as Washington Rolls 10-2
Washington put up 10 runs on Boston on July 1, 2026, with three different Nationals going deep in a 10-2 rout. The fourth inning alone produced five runs and effectively ended any drama before the middle of the game.
Andres Chaparro got Washington going in the first, launching a 396-foot homer to left center that scored Curtis Mead and put the Nationals up 2-0 before Boston's starter had found his footing. Ryan Watson lasted just two innings for Boston, allowing 3 hits and 1 earned run, and the Red Sox bullpen walked into a mess it couldn't clean up. The fourth inning was where this game was decided. Nasim Nuñez led it off with a 372-foot shot to left center — the single play that swung Boston's win probability from 43% to 20%, a 23-point collapse in one swing. Luis García Jr. then singled to left, scoring two more. A double-play grounder pushed Mead home for the sixth run, and Jacob Young's double to left made it 7-0. Five runs, four hits, and a double play that still went Washington's way. That's a fourth inning that looks, in retrospect, like the moment Boston's night stopped being a baseball game and started being damage control.
On the mound, Andrew Alvarez was sharp for Washington, going 4.2 innings and allowing just 2 hits, 0 earned runs, and striking out 6. Brad Lord followed with 2.1 innings of his own — 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 2 walks, 1 strikeout — and the two combined to hold Boston scoreless through seven. James Wood put the finishing touch on the offensive performance in the seventh, a 393-foot blast to left center that scored two and pushed the lead to 10-0. Wood finished 2-for-4 with a homer, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored. Boston's two runs came in the eighth on a walk and a fielder's choice — cosmetic damage at that point.
The story of the night was Washington's lineup depth. Six different Nationals recorded an RBI. Mead went 2-for-5 and scored twice without driving in a run, which tells you how often he was on base ahead of the damage. It's worth noting that Boston was already dealing with the absence of infielder Marcelo Mayer, who was placed on the 10-day IL with a left forearm injury, per ESPN. Whether that thinned the lineup or not, the Red Sox had no answers for a Washington offense that spread the pain across the entire batting order. This one wasn't close from the moment Chaparro's ball cleared the left-center wall.