Abrams, Lile Torch Arizona in Wild Third-Inning Explosion

CJ Abrams went 3-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBI to lead Washington past Arizona 5-3 on Saturday. The story of the night was a third inning that swung the game entirely — and never really let Arizona back in.

Mitch Bratt had no answers in the third. The Arizona starter allowed 7 hits and 5 earned runs across 5.0 innings, and the damage was concentrated early. Washington came to bat in the third down 2-0 after Gabriel Moreno singled to center to score two Arizona runners — though Moreno was thrown out trying to stretch it at second, a baserunning mistake that would loom large. Washington answered immediately. Abrams doubled to center, scoring two to tie it at 2-2. Then Daylen Lile stepped up and tripled to right, scoring two more to put Washington ahead 4-2. That triple was the decisive blow: Washington's win probability swung from 67% to 84% on that single swing of the bat. Three at-bats, four runs, and a two-run lead — all in the same inning Arizona had just taken control.

Abrams wasn't done. In the fifth, he drove a 390-foot home run to right center to push the lead to 5-2, putting the game firmly out of reach. He finished 3-for-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored — the kind of complete offensive performance that carries a lineup. Jacob Young added a 2-for-4 night and scored a run, while Lile's triple accounted for 2 RBI on just one hit. Washington didn't need volume; they needed damage, and they got it.

Foster Griffin did his part on the mound, working 6.2 innings and allowing 3 earned runs on 6 hits with just 1 walk. That's a workmanlike outing — not dominant, but durable enough to hand the bullpen a manageable situation. Arizona did scratch across a seventh-inning run when James McCann singled to right to score Tim Tawa, who had reached base twice on the night going 2-for-3. Gerardo Carrillo and Taylor Clarke combined for 3.0 scoreless innings out of the Arizona bullpen, which looks like a case of too little, too late — the damage from Bratt's five-walk, five-run start was simply too much to overcome. Washington wins 5-3.