WASHINGTON – Let’s just call them the comeback kids from the Bronx.
For the third game in a row, the Yankees took advantage of a big swing late to stun the Nationals. This time it was Ben Rice.
Rice cranked a triple off the wall in left-center field to score two in the eighth inning, lifting the Yankees to their seventh sweep of the season in a 5-3 win at Nationals Park.
The slugger, playing first base for the first time this series, has reached base a season-high 12 games in a row after his third triple this season. The ball was scorched at 100.8 mph for a Statcast-projected 383 feet to extend Rice's hitting streak to eight games.
Nationals center fielder Dylan Crews collided with the wall as the ball rolled away from left fielder Daylen Lile. Max Schuemann and Trent Grisham scored as the Yankees came back to take the lead after trailing 3-2, marking their 24th comeback win of the season and fourth in a row.
The Bombers trailed after seven innings in each of the three games in the series.
The Yankees finished the first half at 54-42 in defeating the Nationals for the sixth consecutive time. They have won four in a row and five of their past seven.
National slugger James Wood led off with a home run for the second game in a row and a team-record 10th time this season. He got a hold of Yankees starter Will Warren's 94.6 mph fastball and hit it a Statcast-projected 434 feet to center field for his 28th of the season.
The Yankees erased that deficit with RBI singles by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells to go up 2-1 in the fifth inning.
Pinch-hitter Curtis Mead crushed a Tim Hill sinker over the center-field wall to even the score at 2-2 in the sixth. It was the third homer Hill has allowed in the series and fourth this month.