Ryan Zimmerman's two-run shot with two outs in the 10th inning off Yankees closer Andrew Miller, who hadn't allowed a run this season, lifted the Washington Nationals to an 8-6 comeback victory over AL East-leading New York on Tuesday night.
Zimmerman's fifth homer this season — and 10th game-ending homer of his career — made a winner of Matt Grace (2-0), who threw the 10th.
Miller (0-1) had converted his first 13 save chances of 2015.
Bryce Harper hit one of Washington's three solo shots, giving him an NL-high 15 homers this season.
The Nationals have won three games in a row and improved to 13-4 in May. The Yankees, meanwhile, have lost six of their last seven games.
Five Nationals relievers threw a total of five scoreless innings, helped in the 10th by center fielder Denard Span's sprinting, diving, tumbling catch of Brett Gardner's sinking liner.
Harper and Ian Desmond hit solo shots in the first inning off Nathan Eovaldi, with Harper's grabbed by a fan leading over a railing above the out-of-town scoreboard just to the right of straightaway center.
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After a replay review, Harper's homer stood. Coming off consecutive NL Player of the Week awards, he entered the day leading the majors in RBIs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs and walks.
New York scored the game's next six runs off Gio Gonzalez to lead 6-2, including Mark Teixeira's two-run homer in the fifth.
The Nationals made it 6-all in the sixth on Wilson Ramos' homer off a 3-0 fastball to make it 6-all. That extended Ramos' hitting streak to 19 games.
After Washington got within 6-5 with three runs in the fifth, Harper came up with two on and one out. Yankees manager Joe Girardi lifted Eovaldi, a right-hander, to go with lefty reliever Justin Wilson. Eovaldi gave up five runs in 4 1-3 innings.
Wilson got Harper to roll into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. As Harper crossed the bag at first, he pulled off his red batting helmet and chucked it to the ground, where it bounced and rolled quite a bit in foul territory toward right field.
In the seventh, again batting with two on, but this time with two outs, Harper struck out swinging against Chasen Shreve, a lefty he's known since both were teens in Nevada — which, in the 22-year-old Harper's case, was not all that long ago. They also were junior college teammates. Yankees closer Andrew Miller struck out Harper swinging at a slider with a man on in the 10th.
Gonzalez was charged with six earned runs and six hits in five innings.
With no designated hitter at NL ballparks, Girardi left Alex Rodriguez out of the starting lineup. Rodriguez entered the game at third base in the eighth as part of a double switch, then struck out looking in the ninth after being greeted by loud, lengthy boos from the crowd of 37,355.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Yankees: CF Jacoby Ellsbury left in the fourth with a right knee injury. ... RHP Masahiro Tanaka is slated to throw about 45 pitches in a minor league rehab start at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. ... RHP Chase Whitley had Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, less than a week after leaving a game because of elbow pain. "The way I understood it was there was only a few fibers left," Girardi said. "He maybe had a couple pitches left, and then it would've been completely gone. So it was the right choice on his part."
Nationals: LF Jayson Werth went on the 15-day DL with a bruised left wrist. Washington recalled INF Wilmer Difo from Double-A Harrisburg. Difo made his major league debut in the seventh inning, delivering a pinch-hit single. ... RHP Casey Janssen, on the DL with right shoulder inflammation since the start of the season, is scheduled to appear Wednesday at Double-A Harrisburg.
UP NEXT
In the 11th start of his career, and first against the Nationals, Yankees RHP Adam Warren (2-2, 4.50 ERA) is scheduled to become the latest pitcher to try to slow down Harper. Warren goes up against Nationals RHP Jordan Zimmermann (3-2, 3.66).
