Abrams Crushes 422-Foot Bomb to Blow This One Open

CJ Abrams launched a two-run shot 422 feet to center in the fifth inning, swinging the win probability from 35% to 17% against the Athletics in a single swing. Washington walked away with a 5-2 final, and the story of the night was a Nationals offense that punched back every time the game threatened to get interesting.

The game moved in lockstep early. Washington scratched across the first run in the third when a Mead groundout to shortstop scored Nuñez, but the Athletics answered immediately — Soderstrom singled to right to score Williams and knot it at 1. It looked like the kind of game that could go either way deep into the night. Then Ford broke the tie in the fourth with a double to left that scored Crews, and Washington had the lead back at 2-1 heading into the fifth.

That's when Abrams ended the conversation. His two-run homer to center — 422 feet — scored Mead and pushed the lead to 4-1, collapsing the Athletics' win probability from 35% to 17% in one at-bat. Crews followed two batters later with his own shot, a 362-foot solo blast to left that made it 5-1. Two home runs in the same inning, back-to-back damage, and the game was effectively over. Abrams finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored; Crews went 1-for-3 with a homer, an RBI, and 2 runs scored. A recent piece flagged both as Nationals players who need a big second half — on this Sunday, they delivered.

Foster Griffin did his part to make the lead hold up. He worked 7.0 innings, allowing 8 hits and just 1 earned run while walking one and striking out two — a workmanlike outing that looks even better given how efficiently he navigated traffic. The Athletics' bullpen kept Washington off the board after the fifth, with Brady Basso and Geoff Hartlieb combining for 4.0 scoreless innings, but the damage was already done. Jacob Wilson's ninth-inning single to center scored McNeil to make it 5-2, but that was cosmetic. Washington controlled this game from the moment Abrams connected, and the final score reflects it cleanly.