Washington Nationals at Detroit Tigers: Final Score & Recap

The Washington Nationals handed the Detroit Tigers a 3-1 defeat at Comerica Park on September 22, 2026, overcoming a pregame environment that the DiamondIQ model's estimate placed at 54 percent in favor of the home side. Washington pushed across a run in the second inning and then went quiet until the sixth, when Detroit answered with a run of its own on Spencer Torkelson's walk off Jackson Kent, a moment that shifted win probability 16.0 percent toward the Tigers and briefly made the contest feel like it was trending Detroit's way. That lead in momentum evaporated quickly, however, when CJ Abrams stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh against Drew Anderson and deposited a home run that swung win probability 23.3 percent toward Washington, the single most consequential play of the night. The two-run blast effectively broke the game open and sent the DiamondIQ model's estimate plummeting toward inevitability for the Nationals.

The final two innings underscored just how thoroughly Washington closed the door. Javier Báez, who grounded into a double play in the fourth that had cost Detroit 11.1 percent in win probability and grounded out again in the eighth at a cost of 7.4 percent, represented the Tigers' inability to generate any late threat. On the pitching side, Jack Sinclair led Washington's relievers with a WPA of plus-18.7 percent, with Riley Cornelio and Jackson Kent each contributing as well. The clearest individual stamp on the game belonged to Abrams, who finished with a WPA of plus-26.1 percent and a RE24 of plus-2.2, while Kevin McGonigle posted a WPA of plus-22.4 percent, aided in part by a game-ending strikeout of Erik Tolman in the ninth that added 12.0 percent to Washington's probability. Torkelson's plus-19.5 percent WPA stood as the lone Detroit bright spot in a final box score that read 7 hits apiece but told a story of Washington executing at the moments that mattered most.