WASHINGTON — Back in May, Nasim Nuñez delivered the type of start that a player remembers the rest of their career.
With four hits vs. the Orioles on May 16, Nuñez led the Nats to a win in Baltimore to open their first series sweep of the year — and, entering Wednesday, their only sweep.
But, facing the team he began his career with, and which left him unprotected ahead of the 2023 Rule 5 Draft — in which the Nationals acquired him — Nuñez blew that start out of the water.
Nuñez not only went 3-for-4, but he also launched the first two home runs of his career to lead Washington to a 10-5 finale win and their first sweep at home this season. Nuñez became the fifth Expos/Nationals player to hit his first two MLB homers in the same game. His teammate Brady House did that earlier this season on July 12.
Nuñez, hitting ninth in his first game since he was called up on Monday, crushed his first career big league homer in a two-run second inning. His long ball, which soared into the Nationals’ bullpen in right field, was the third of Washington’s RBI knocks in the game.
House followed Nuñez’s lead in the fourth, as he crushed his third homer of the year, the first since those two homers on July 12. House’s two-run homer handed Washington a 7-0 lead and some much needed insurance as the Marlins found their footing and drove in four runs in the fifth inning.
Six innings later, Nuñez sent another ball into the bullpen — this time an opposite-field blast into the visiting bullpen in left field. His first home run, AND his first multihomer game, all wrapped into one. Not too shabby.
But there were other “firsts” that were a bit overshadowed — and rightfully so.
The Nationals bumped Daylen Lile up to No. 2 in the lineup, the first time he hit second in the Majors in his career, making Lile and leadoff hitter James Wood the first Nos. 1-2 hitters in MLB this year to be 22 years old or younger.
And in the first, Luis Garcia Jr. hit an RBI single, followed by an RBI double from Jorge Alfaro — his first hit as a National (and since 2023) in his first start with the club (also his first big league start since ‘23).
