Nationals rally to tie in 9th, defeat Astros in 10th

Joey Meneses drove in the winning run with a single on the first pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Washington Nationals a 5-4 victory against the visiting Houston Astros on Saturday.

The Nationals forced the extra inning with two runs in the ninth and didn't waste any time winning the game.

CJ Abrams homered and doubled for the Nationals, who struggled in clutch situations until the last two innings. Kyle Finnegan (1-2) was the winning pitcher with an inning of relief, though he needed to face just two batters.

Yordan Alvarez delivered three hits, Kyle Tucker rapped a pair of run-scoring singles, and Jeremy Pena drove in a late-inning, go-ahead run with his second single of the game, but those weren't enough for Houston. All nine hits for the Astros were singles.

Houston starter Ronel Blanco allowed two runs in six innings, striking out six and walking three. Rafael Montero, Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly each worked an inning. Seth Martinez (1-2) threw one pitch and was tagged with the loss.

The Astros were denied in the top of the 10th when Alex Bregman's one-out fly ball was caught by right fielder Lane Thomas, who threw out Jose Altuve at the plate.

In the bottom of the ninth, Washington's Nick Senzel reached on catcher's interference and Abrams doubled before Jesse Winker lined a two-run single to center field to tie the score, all before an out was recorded.

Washington starter Trevor Williams gave up one run and three hits through six innings, and was in position to be the winning pitcher. Robert Garcia was charged with two runs without recording an out in the seventh.

Houston scored first on Bregman's first-inning sacrifice fly.

Abrams hit a tying home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning. It was his sixth homer.

Washington moved ahead in the fourth on Riley Adams' sacrifice fly.

The first three Astros batters in the seventh reached base, with Tucker's single knocking in the tying run. Then there were runners on second and third with one out when Pena singled in the go-ahead run.

Reliever Hunter Harvey escaped further damage by recording a strikeout of Chas McCormick before Jose Abreu's inning-ending groundout.

Washington's first two batters got aboard in the eighth before Abreu doused that threat.