Mead and Garcia Jr. homer, Griffin pitches into 8th inning and Nationals beat Phillies 4-1

WASHINGTON (AP) — Curtis Mead and Luis Garcia Jr. homered, Foster Griffin pitched 7 1/3 strong innings and the Nationals beat the Phillies 4-1 on Monday night in the opener of a four-game series between the division rivals.

>Dylan Crews, James Wood and Keibert Ruiz each had a double and a single for Washington, which had lost three of four.

>Griffin (8-2) gave up a run on four hits and struck out nine without a walk. He has gone five or more innings and allowed one earned run in each of his past four starts.

>Clayton Beeter pitched the ninth for his sixth save.

>Brandon Marsh homered for Philadelphia, which had won two straight and four of six.

>The start of the game was delayed one hour and 32 minutes by rain.

>Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, who went a combined 12 for 17 over their past two games with six homers (four by Schwarber) went 2 for 8 with Harper singling twice.

>Washington’s CJ Abrams saw his home run streak end at three games. Nasim Nuñez singled twice and has hit safely in eight straight games and reached base safely in a career-high 14 straight.

>Marsh's homer in the seventh pulled the Phillies within 2-1, but Wood singled and Mead followed with a two-run shot in the bottom half.

>Wood doubled leading off the first against opener Tim Mayza and scored on a single by Crews.

>Garcia homered off Alan Rangel with one out in the second to make it 2-0.

>Mayza (2-2) allowed one run in one inning and bulk reliever Rangel, recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, allowed a run on five hits over five innings.

Up nextPhiladelphia’s Jesús Luzardo (6-4, 4.20 ERA) pitches the second game of the series, while the Nationals will start Zack Littell (6-6, 5.45).

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>AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb