Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler looks for his 10th win of the season when New York visits the Washington Nationals in the middle game of their series on Saturday.

The Yankees have won two straight for the first time since June 23-24 thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s heroics on Friday night when he hit a two-run go-ahead homer and New York rallied past Washington 5-3.

Schlittler (9-5, 2.01 ERA) opposes right-hander Miles Mikolas (3-7, 5.78) in the middle game.

The Yankees All-Star recently followed up his worst start of the season with arguably his best. On June 30, he gave up six runs on seven hits — four of them home runs — in four innings of a loss to the Detroit Tigers. Last time out, he stifled the Tampa Bay Rays, giving up one run on four hits in eight innings. He struck out eight batters without a walk.

“It was huge. I’m not surprised he bounced back from arguably his toughest outing of his career so far against the Tigers,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He was great. He was dominant. He was efficient.”

It matched his longest start of the season, an eight-inning effort in a win against the Red Sox on April 23.

Schlittler tossed six scoreless innings to beat the Nationals last season.

Mikolas is looking to bounce back from a pair of losses in which he gave up 13 runs on 18 hits (four homers) over 13 innings. Against the Houston Astros on July 6, he allowed seven runs on nine hits in six innings. He settled in after giving up six early runs.

Washington won 12-11 making Mikolas the first Nationals pitcher (2005-present) to give up seven runs and get a win.

“It reminds you that you’re never really out of a game, even if you feel pretty bad about the first couple of innings,” he said.

On Friday night, the Nationals got back-to-back homers from Keibert Ruiz and James Wood to take a 3-2 lead in the seventh. Nationals manager Blake Butera called on left-hander Matt Krook to work the ninth against two lefties and a switch hitter for what would have been his first big-league save.

Krook got the first out, but gave up a single to Jasson Dominguez and then Chisholm’s home run into the second deck on a 1-1 sweeper.

“That was a big blow,” Boone said. “That’s not a comfortable at-bat necessarily and to hang in there and stay on that pitch and I mean absolutely destroy it was a big time at-bat.”

Dominguez and Austin Wells also homered for the Yankees.

Wood finished a triple short of the cycle and scored twice. He has 11 hits and 13 walks in his last 27 plate appearances, striking out just three times in that span. Wood has homered in three of his past four games.

Washington’s bullpen has blown a league-high 26 saves this season. In their past 16 games, they have allowed four go-ahead homers in the ninth inning.

“When you’re facing three hitters in the ninth like these guys (tonight), it doesn’t help your case at all,” Butera said. “But at the end of the day, these guys in the bullpen are going to have to get big outs for us.”

–Field Level Media

The Boston Red Sox left Citi Field on Friday night uncertain who their starting pitcher would be on Saturday.

That may be just a small hurdle to overcome for a team that’s already figured out how to win a game immediately after a nightmarish travel experience.

The surging Red Sox will look to clinch another series win Saturday afternoon when they visit the New York Mets in the middle game of a three-game interleague set.

Right-hander Freddy Peralta (5-7, 4.68 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets.

Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said a starting pitcher might be recalled from Triple-A Worcester on Saturday to take the rotation spot usually occupied by All-Star Ranger Suarez, who went on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a strained groin.

The Red Sox showed few effects of their laborious trek to Citi Field on Friday, when Masataka Yoshida’s two-run double in the first gave the visitors a lead they’d never relinquish in a 6-2 victory.

Sonny Gray gave up one run over six innings for the Red Sox, who capped an eventful two-day period by recording their seventh straight victory.

Boston’s flight out of Chicago following a three-game sweep of the White Sox was delayed almost 24 hours due to multiple mechanical issues on the club’s charter plane. The Red Sox didn’t land at LaGuardia Airport in New York until after 4 p.m. and didn’t make it to Citi Field until about an hour later.

The first pitch was pushed back from 7:15 to 7:51 EST to accommodate the Red Sox.

“Obviously long day-and-a-half,” Tracy said. “And they brought everything they had, which was great.”

Friday’s win improved the Red Sox to a major-league-leading 12-2 since June 25, one day after they matched a season low by falling 14 games under .500. Boston now is 1 1/2 games behind the Seattle Mariners in the race for the final American League wild-card berth.

The Red Sox were six games out of the last playoff spot through June 24, when they had the worst record in the AL.

“Crazy 24 hours,” said Red Sox second baseman Anthony Seigler, who opened Friday’s game by reaching on a two-base error by Mets left fielder Juan Soto and scored the first run before adding a two-run homer in the seventh. “But we knew we had to come in and keep the same energy that we had on this stretch.”

Brett Baty had three hits, including a homer, and scored both runs for the Mets, who went quiet offensively following one of their most prolific four-game stretches of the season. New York scored 42 runs while going 4-1 in the previous five contests.

The Mets finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position Friday, when they were held to two runs or less for the 35th time this season. Only the Los Angeles Angels (39) have scored two runs or less more often.

The Mets, who have the third-worst record in the National League at 40-55, had runners at the corners with none out in the eighth in a 4-1 game but didn’t score.

“I thought we put ourselves in a lot of scoring positions throughout the day,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “Weren’t able to cash in anything,”

Peralta didn’t factor into the decision in his most recent start Monday, when he gave up three runs (one earned) over 4 2/3 innings in the Mets’ 7-6, 10-inning win over the Atlanta Braves.

He is 0-1 with a 5.91 ERA in two career starts against the Red Sox.

-Field Level Media

The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t stand pat on Friday despite seeing their scheduled series opener against the visiting Milwaukee Brewers rained out.

Pittsburgh sent the 34th overall pick in the upcoming MLB Draft and left-hander Jaden Woods to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for infielder Jacob Gonzalez and left-handed pitcher Brandon Eisert. The trade will give the Pirates some flexibility as they deal with the absence of infielder Konnor Griffin (torn finger tendon).

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington was pleased with the trade.

“We believe in this team and discussed multiple ways to use the comp pick to strengthen it,” Cherington said.

“Jacob Gonzalez can complement Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo on the left side of the infield in Konnor Griffin’s absence. He’s also a versatile left-handed hitter who has taken significant steps this season and who we believe in long-term.

“Brandon Eisert makes us even deeper in left-handed relief.”

Back to matters on the field, the starters for Saturday’s first game of the doubleheader were not immediately known, although Pirates All-Star Braxton Ashcraft (9-3, 3.24 ERA) likely will square off against fellow right-hander Brandon Sproat (3-4, 5.13) of the Brewers.

Milwaukee planned to send rookie left-hander Shane Drohan (4-2, 2.97 ERA) to the mound for Game 2 against Pittsburgh right-hander Bubba Chandler (3-8, 4.82).

Ashcraft has given the Pirates such length this season, pitching at least six innings in 12 of his 18 starts. He has 122 strikeouts over 108 1/3 innings this season.

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game, and I don’t really think you can argue that,” teammate Paul Skenes said about Ashcraft. “All the numbers say that, too. Obviously, he’s having a good year. Recognition and going to the All-Star Game is not the end-all, be-all by any means. But he deserves it, and he’s not the only one.”

Ashcraft was named an All-Star replacement with Skenes unable to pitch in the Midsummer Classic since he is scheduled to start this Sunday. Pittsburgh is 12-6 this season in games Ashcraft starts, and he has allowed two runs or fewer in 13 of his 18 starts.

Ashcraft will make his second career start against Milwaukee. On June 23 of last year, he received a no-decision after allowing one hit over three scoreless innings.

The Brewers have won each of the past four times Sproat has pitched. That includes Sproat’s most recent outing this past Sunday against Arizona, which was not his most efficient. Sproat, who has never faced the Pirates, threw 92 pitches in four innings, walked three, struck out four and gave up one run on five hits in his team’s 3-2 win.

While Milwaukee did get quality starts from most of its rotation during its four wins against the St. Louis Cardinals this week, it could use a better performance from Sproat.

The Brewers continue to find ways to win, even though they entered Thursday’s game batting .209 as a team with runners in scoring position over a 17-game stretch, which ranked 28th out of 30 MLB teams.

“We find a way in ‘winning time’ in those last few innings to push something across,” Milwaukee designated hitter/outfielder Christian Yelich said. “We manufacture something even though things aren’t going our way the last few weeks. You run into those stretches during a baseball season, and you have to find ways to survive them.”

Drohan picked up his first win in nearly one month on Monday after allowing three runs (one earned) over six innings in a 4-3 victory over the Cardinals. In his second career game back in April, he faced the Pirates and pitched the sixth through ninth innings of a 6-0 loss, surrendering three runs (one earned) on four hits.

Chandler endured his second straight rough outing on Sunday after yielding four runs on six hits and four walks in four innings of a no-decision versus the Washington Nationals. He was blitzed in his lone career meeting with Milwaukee, permitting nine runs on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings of a 10-2 loss on Sept. 7.

–Field Level Media