Pérez, meanwhile, couldn't find the plate. He walked 4 in just 3 innings, and Brady House made him pay for it with a 445-foot, 3-run homer in the third that put Washington up 5-1 before Miami's lineup had even settled in. A Tyson Ford solo shot and a 2-run double from D. Crews in the seventh piled on from there.
Friday's result reversed the recent trend between these two clubs — Miami had beaten Washington 4-2 on Aug. 22 and 6-2 on Aug. 23, both with Pérez on the mound for the first of those, before Kent and the Nationals bullpen flipped the script this time. Washington's relievers backed him up by allowing just 1 run over the final 6 innings.
Neither club is chasing much beyond pride at this point in the season, and both are leaning on prospects to shape how the year finishes. Kent's emergence matters more to Washington's outlook than one final score does, and Pérez's second-half turnaround remains the more important storyline for Miami — Friday's meltdown was a blip, not a reversal of that arc.
Both rotations will keep leaning on names off the injury list before the season's out — Miami's still waiting on Max Meyer, Robby Snelling and Adam Mazur, while Washington's counting down to Wood's return and rehab assignments for Gray and Herz. For one night, though, it was the two least-established arms in the building who decided the outcome.