DETROIT — Justyn-Henry Malloy homered and drove in three RBIs and the Detroit Tigers ended the Washington Nationals’ five-game winning streak with a 7-2 victory on Thursday.
After striking out with the bases loaded in the third inning, Malloy was hitting .143 in the first 10 days of his big-league career.
“There’s no lack of confidence with him — ever,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “But you still have to do it. It’s great for him to have this first breakout game — now he can relax his shoulders a little bit.”
Malloy hit his second career homer in the sixth and added a two-run double in the seventh.
“It’s always nice to avoid getting swept and take a win into a road trip,” said Malloy, who replaced Spencer Torkelson in the lineup. “I was able to go out there and put a nice swing on a couple balls.”
The Tigers had lost five of six while the Nationals were trying for their longest winning streak since an eight-game run from Sept. 23-29, 2019, — the season they won the World Series.
Detroit’s Casey Mize allowed one run and four hits in six innings, while Patrick Corbin gave up a run in 5 1/3 innings.
Shelby Miller (4-4) picked up the win, allowing one run in 1 1/3 relief innings.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead on Mark Canha’s RBI single in the third inning, but Washington tied the score on Ildemaro Vargas’ sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Malloy gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the sixth with a homer off Derek Law (3-2), but Vargas made it 2-2 in the seventh with another sacrifice fly. It was Washington’s sixth sacrifice fly in the three-game series, including three from Vargas.
“We’ve started understanding how to drive in runners from third with less than two outs,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “We’ve struggled before, but if we keep doing that, some of them will turn into doubles.”
Detroit scored five runs in the seventh. With one out, Ryan Kreidler and Matt Vierling looped singles into center field. Andy Ibanez hit an RBI double before Canha made it 4-2 with a sacrifice fly.
Robert Garcia replaced Law, but Riley Greene hit a ground single up the middle, scoring Ibanez. Malloy added a two-run double later in the inning.
“We were leaving guys on base — it was ‘bend but not break’ from Corbin — but we were able to get through it in the seventh with a lot of quality at-bats,” Hinch said.
Washington’s best relievers weren’t available after pitching key innings in wins on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’ve relied on (Law and Garcia) throughout the whole year and they’ve done really well,” Martinez said. “It just didn’t happen today.”
Lane Thomas was ejected by home plate umpire Emil Jimenez after arguing a called third strike in the sixth inning.
Washington returns home for a three-game series with the Miami Marlins. Left-hander MacKenzie Gore (5-5, 3.57) will start on Friday.\
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