Nationals hand Burnes his first loss as Diamondbacks ace

Alex Call and Paul DeJong each had two hits and drove in a run and Trevor Williams struck out six over five innings as the Washington Nationals beat the Arizona 5-4 Sunday and handed Diamondbacks ace Corbin Burnes his first loss.

Washington took two of three from Arizona, winning a series from the Diamondbacks for the first time since 2021. It was the Nationals’ first home series victory over Arizona since 2017.

Burnes (0-1) yielded four runs while throwing 89 pitches over five innings in his second start since signing a six-year, $210 million deal in December. 

He gave up Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI double and Call’s run-scoring single the first inning, CJ Abrams’ sacrifice fly in the second and Dejong’s two-out RBI double in the third as his ERA rose to 5.79.

“It wasn’t fun, that’s for sure,” Burnes said. “Just didn’t command the baseball and hurt myself. I think we put six guys on with the walks and hit by pitches. It’s kind of amazing we only gave up four.”

Williams (1-0) allowed three runs and has pitched at least five innings in 14 of his 15 starts since joining the Nationals before last season.

Kyle Finnegan worked the ninth for his third save in as many attempts.

Jose Herrera homered in the second inning for Arizona, his second in 134 career games.

After the Diamondbacks’ Randal Grichuk got ahead 3-0, Finnegan ran the count full before inducing a game-ending, broken-bat grounder to shortstop that stranded Corbin Carroll at third base.

After going 1 for 25 in his first seven games this season, Washington rookie outfielder Dylan Crews was 2 for 4 with a run and a stolen base.

Fans at Nationals Park didn’t miss out on the other big local — and natioinal — sports story of the day, either: The park’s giant scoreboard showed fans the action when NHL legend Alex Ovechkin, playing on Long Island, New York, against the Islanders, set the record for career goals scored.

The historic moment drew cheers and chants of “Ovi” from the Nationals crowd. 

Arizona returns home Monday to begin a three-game series against Baltimore. Right-hander Zac Gallen (1-1, 3.38 ERA) starts for the Diamondbacks.

Left-hander MacKenzie Gore (0-1, 2.45) makes his third start of the season as Washington welcomes the Los Angeles Dodgers for the opener of a three-game series Monday.