CJ Abrams homers late as Nats hand Yankees 9th straight setback

CJ Abrams hit a tiebreaking homer with two outs in the eighth inning on Tuesday night as the visiting Washington Nationals recorded a 2-1 victory over the New York Yankees, who are on their first nine-game losing streak since September 1982.

Abrams snapped a 1-1 tie by hitting a first-pitch changeup from Tommy Kahnle (1-2) off the right field foul pole. It was the shortstop’s 13th homer of the season.

Carter Kieboom homered in the third on the second pitch he faced in his season debut after returning from Tommy John surgery that cost him all of last season.

Ben Rortvedt homered and had both hits for the Yankees. New York also dropped to 12-27 since getting to 10 games over .500 on July 4.

Carlos Rodon allowed one run and six hits over six innings in the best of his seven starts as a Yankee. After missing two weeks because of a left hamstring strain, the left-hander also had help from his outfield defense, which threw out three Nationals trying to stretch singles into doubles.

Keibert Ruiz opened the fourth by sliding past the bag at second and was easily thrown out by right fielder Aaron Judge. Ildemaro Vargas made the last out of the inning when rookie left fielder Everson Pereira made a strong relay throw to shortstop Anthony Volpe, who fired to second baseman Gleyber Torres to complete the play.

Pitching in front of several family and friends from nearby New Rochelle, N.Y., Washington’s Josiah Gray pitched six innings and survived issuing five walks.

Mason Thompson (4-4) got DJ LeMahieu to fly out on the first pitch to strand a runner in the seventh. Hunter Harvey struck out Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in a 1-2-3 eighth and Kyle Finnegan worked the ninth for his 22nd save.

The Yankees have scored just 21 runs over the course of their losing streak.