Toronto's night got messier in the middle innings when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. exited with right hamstring tightness after wincing rounding first base, forcing the Blue Jays to replace their best hitter mid-game against a Nationals lineup that was already finding gaps.
Washington jumped out early and never fully let go of the rope, piling on runs in the first, fourth and fifth to build the kind of lead a shorthanded Blue Jays lineup had to claw back from with Guerrero out of the picture. Toronto's bullpen and bench are already stretched thin with multiple relievers on extended IL stints, which made erasing a multi-run deficit that much tougher.
Give Toronto credit for not folding. The Jays scratched across three runs in the eighth to make it a two-run game and put a real scare into the Nationals' bullpen before Washington shut the door.
It's the kind of win Washington needed. The club had recently slipped behind in the crowded NL Wild Card picture, and taking the series opener the night before before backing it up here keeps them squarely in the conversation heading into the final two games of the set.