WASHINGTON (Interstat) — The New York Yankees erupted for four runs in the eighth inning Saturday afternoon, rallying past the Washington Nationals 4-2 at Nationals Park before a crowd of 34,054.

The game lasted 2 hours, 56 minutes.

New York improved to 53-42, while Washington dropped to 48-48.

Yankees starter Cam Schlittler turned in a strong outing, allowing two earned runs on four hits over 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts. He left with the Yankees trailing 2-0, but the offense finally broke through in the eighth.

Washington took the lead in the first inning against Schlittler. James Wood led off the bottom of the first with his 27th home run, a fly ball to right-center field. Two batters later, Curtis Mead crushed his 16th homer to left-center, making it 2-0.

The Nationals threatened to add to the lead in the fourth, loading the bases with two outs on walks to Jorbit Vivas and Drew Millas and a single by CJ Abrams, but Nasim Nuñez flied out to end the inning.

Yankees hitters managed only scattered singles through the first seven innings against Washington starter Miles Mikolas and relievers Tom Cosgrove, Matt Krook and PJ Poulin. Mikolas worked four scoreless innings, allowing four hits. Cosgrove struck out two in 1 1/3 innings. Krook fanned one in 1 2/3 innings, and Poulin punched out three in 1 2/3 innings.

The top of the eighth began with Austin Wells popping out. Then Ryan McMahon stepped to the plate against Nationals reliever Clayton Beeter and launched his ninth home run to right-center, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

Ben Rice walked, and Trent Grisham followed by belting his 10th homer to right field, a two-run shot that also scored pinch runner Jose Caballero and put the Yankees ahead 3-2.

Paul Goldschmidt made it back-to-back homers, drilling his 15th to left-center to extend the lead to 4-2. Cody Bellinger doubled, but the rally ended there.

Yankees reliever Brent Headrick, who had entered in the seventh, got the win to improve to 5-1. He worked 1 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out two.

David Bednar pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing a single to Wood but stranding him, to earn his 18th save.

Beeter took the loss, falling to 3-2. He gave up four runs on four hits and two walks in the eighth without recording an out.

Wood finished 3-for-5 with a home run. Mead went 2-for-3 with a homer and a walk. Grisham was 2-for-4 with the homer and two RBIs. McMahon went 1-for-3 with a homer and a walk.

Schlittler’s outing was a bounce-back from a rough start on June 30 against Detroit, when he allowed six earned runs in four innings. On July 6 at Tampa Bay, he threw eight innings of one-run ball.

The Yankees also won the series opener Friday, 5-3. New York had lost three of its previous four games entering the weekend but has now won two straight. Washington has lost two in a row after winning five of its previous six.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Washington 6, New York 3. Interstat’s ELO system gave the Yankees a 57.60 percent probability to win. New York was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 1.5. The total score of six went over the over/under line of 8.5.