Howie Kendrick and Josh Harrison homered to stake Washington to an early 5-0 lead, and Patrick Corbin and the Nats held on for a 5-3 win over the New York Mets on Tuesday at Nats Park.
The game was the first for the Nationals in five days, after a weekend series at Miami was scuttled due to the Marlins’ issues with COVID-19.
The defending World Series champs have now won three in a row to get back to .500 (at 4-4) on the season.
Corbin (1-0, 3.00 ERA) got his first win since earning the W in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, giving up three runs on eight hits in five and two-thirds innings, striking out eight and walking one.
Daniel Hudson pitched around a two-out walk to notch his second save of the season.
Kendrick finished the night 4-for-4 at the plate.
Star slugger Juan Soto was activated before the game and available to the team on Tuesday, but he didn’t make his first appearance of the season after having tested positive ahead of the season opener two weeks ago.
Nats manager Davey Martinez suggested postgame that Soto could be in the starting lineup for Wednesday’s game with the Mets.
Story by Chris Graham