Washington Nationals vs Baltimore Orioles Box Score on Aug 16, 2020

The Washington Nationals broke a tie in the eighth inning thanks to a throwing error and beat the host Baltimore Orioles 6-5 on Sunday afternoon.

Juan Soto reached on a one-out walk, took second on a groundout and then scored when Baltimore third baseman Rio Ruiz threw the ball away after fielding Kurt Suzuki's grounder.

When factoring in the completion of a game suspended last weekend, Washington split the four-game series at Camden Yards. Baltimore won both games that were completed at Nationals Park last weekend.

The Nationals jumped ahead early Sunday, and ace Max Scherzer (2-1) shut down the Orioles most of the way -- until a three-run homer from Pedro Severino in the sixth cut the deficit to 5-4. Then in the seventh, Anthony Santander tied it 5-5 with his second solo homer of the game off Scherzer.

Scherzer got through seven innings, giving up five runs, eight hits and a walk, but also striking out 10.

Baltimore starter John Means hadn't started in nearly two weeks due to the death of his father. Means failed to get out of the first inning, giving up four hits and three runs while recording just two outs.

Asdrubal Cabrera drove in the game's first run with a single, and Carter Kieboom added a sacrifice fly for the first out of the game as the first five Nationals to bat reached base safely. Victor Robles made it 3-0 with an RBI single, and ended Means' afternoon.

Santander crushed a homer off Scherzer in the bottom of the first to make it 3-1.

After that, no one brought in a run until Suzuki's sacrifice fly in the fifth. Kieboom then greeted reliever Evan Phillips the following at-bat with an RBI single for a 5-1 lead.

The Orioles then rallied before the late error proved too costly. Daniel Hudson closed it out for Washington with a perfect ninth his fourth save. Travis Lakins (2-1), charged with the unearned run in the eighth, took the loss.

Severino finished with three hits and three RBIs for Baltimore. Soto was the only Nationals player with more than one hit (2-for-3), and Kieboom had two RBIs.

--Field Level Media