Joey Wiemer, Jacob Young and Brady House homered and the bullpen provided 5 1/3 innings of one-run relief to boost the visiting Washington Nationals to a 10-4 Opening Day victory against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday.
Wiemer went 3-for-3 to spark a 11-hit attack in his club debut, which also marked the first game for Nationals manager Blake Butera.
House had two hits and two RBIs while CJ Abrams and Young drove in two runs apiece. Andres Chaparro added two hits.
Michael Busch (three) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (two) delivered multi-hit games for Chicago. But the Cubs went just 4-for-19 with runners in scoring position while stranding nine.
Washington reliever Brad Lord pitched 2 1/3 innings of one-run, four-hit ball to earn the victory. With two on, one out and a run in on Crow-Armstrong’s bunt single in the seventh, Lord (1-0) escaped further damage by forcing Nico Hoerner into a double-play groundout.
Crow-Armstrong had two RBIs.
Cubs starter Matthew Boyd recorded seven of his 11 outs via strikeout while walking just one but still found Washington bats often. The Nationals reached Boyd (0-1) for six runs and six hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Boyd (0-1) allowed hits to five of the seven hitters he faced in the Nationals’ six-run fourth inning. The string included Daylen Lile’s RBI single and a two-run single from Abrams.
Ben Brown relieved Boyd and surrendered a two-run shot to Young on the first batter he faced.
Signed in the offseason after San Francisco designated him for assignment, Wiemer delivered in his first Nationals at-bat, opening the scoring with a solo homer on a 1-1 pitch with one out in the second.
The Cubs responded in the bottom of the third against Nationals right-hander Cade Cavalli, using a walk, Cavalli’s throwing error and sacrifice fly to put runners on the corners with one out. Michael Busch tied the game at 1 with an RBI single before Crow-Armstrong hit a go-ahead single three batters later.
Alex Bregman, who had a hit in his team debut, was thrown out trying to advance to third on the play, ending the inning.
Cavalli took a no-decision, spacing three runs, two earned, and three hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out five.
