WASHINGTON (AP) — CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. both hit their 20th homers of the season, and the Washington Nationals pounded the Houston Astros 8-2 on Wednesday night.
Foster Griffin (10-2) allowed one run in seven innings for Washington, which took two of three from Houston to move two games over .500. Griffin's 10 victories are the most for a Nationals rookie since the club moved from Montreal before the 2005 season.
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Washington Nationals' Luis Garcia Jr. steals second base during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals pitcher Foster Griffin throws during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Houston Astros pitcher Spencer Arrighetti throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals' Daylen Lile hits a double driving in a run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals pitcher Foster Griffin throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Brice Matthews had Houston's lone RBI on a fifth-inning single.
García ripped a three-run shot to right-center in the fourth off Houston starter Spencer Arrighetti (7-5). It was the first baseman’s 11th home run in 18 games since June 19.
Abrams led off the fifth with a blast to right-center to extend the lead to 6-1. The Nationals then loaded the bases on two singles and a walk to chase Arrighetti. José Tena followed with an RBI grounder and Keibert Ruiz added a sacrifice fly against reliever Alimber Santa.
It was plenty of support for Griffin, who tied a career high with nine strikeouts while allowing five hits and no walks. It was the seventh consecutive start in which the 30-year-old allowed just one run. Griffin is 4-0 with a 1.25 ERA in that span.
The left-hander, who signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal with Washington in December after spending the previous three seasons in Japan, had been tied with John Lannan’s 2008 total for the most victories by a Nationals rookie.
James Wood and García walked to open the third. Abrams’ one-out sacrifice fly scored Wood, and Daylen Lile followed with a double to knock in García.
Arrighetti allowed eight runs, seven hits and a career-high six walks in four-plus innings.
Houston RHP Hunter Brown (1-0, 3.38 ERA) faces Texas as the Astros’ trip continues Friday. Washington RHP Zack Littell (7-6, 5.02) starts at home Friday against the New York Yankees.
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Washington Nationals' Luis Garcia Jr. steals second base during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals pitcher Foster Griffin throws during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Houston Astros pitcher Spencer Arrighetti throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals' Daylen Lile hits a double driving in a run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals pitcher Foster Griffin throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time Monday and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlinks yet, but cut the flight short to ensure safety.
The spacecraft reentered over the Pacific and splashed down north of Hawaii three hours after blasting off from Texas. The company had been aiming for a 10-hour flight, spanning six full laps around Earth, to prove its readiness for NASA’s Artemis moon program.
Starship tipped over and erupted in flames upon splashdown, a dramatic end to the mission.
Founder Elon Musk's Starship almost didn't make it to orbit when one of its engines shut down too soon. But with everything else working well and the bad engine no longer needed, flight controllers decided after several tense minutes to proceed as planned.
“Starship is orbital,” Mission Control announced to cheers.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on reaching orbit and “managing every step in a safe, responsible and especially inspirational way.”
Musk’s showpiece rocket — the biggest and most powerful ever built — carried 26 of the latest Starlink satellites to join the 11,000 older models already providing internet service. They popped out of the spacecraft one by one, drawing more cheers from the SpaceX crowds looking on from the launch site at Starbase, Texas.
The decision to end the flight early came soon afterward. No reason was provided.
It was Starship’s 14th full-scale launch from Texas’ southern tip in three years. The earlier test flights ventured no farther than the Indian Ocean halfway around the world, often crashing in flames and briefly skimming space.
This time, SpaceX was intent on circling the globe from an altitude of 170 miles (275 kilometers) — not just once but six times over almost 10 hours, ending with a Pacific splashdown near Chile. While Starship achieved the proper orbit zipping along at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph), flight controllers opted to play it safe and bring it back several hours sooner, after just a couple laps.
The first-stage booster was never meant to return to the Starbase launch site either, instead dropping into the Gulf of Mexico within minutes of the morning liftoff.
SpaceX wants to ensure that everything works before flying Starship back to Starbase. If the spacecraft breaks apart over land and rains debris onto people, “our popularity would diminish very rapidly,” Musk said at a business summit earlier this month. “That’s why we’re being extremely cautious here.”
Depending on the findings from Monday's orbital debut, the next Starship could return to the launch pad with giant mechanical arms grabbing the hovering spacecraft. If the catch works — Musk gives it even or slightly better odds — then SpaceX will refly the spacecraft by year’s end or early next year.
The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket was designed from the start to be fully reusable — a key to lowering launch costs. SpaceX managed to salvage the last Starship from the Indian Ocean in July. Engineers modified the newly launched Starship’s heat shield based on hands-on inspections from the recovered spacecraft, which is being tugged back to Starbase.
SpaceX is pressing hard to certify Starship for orbital flight, a vital step toward moon and Mars travel.
NASA’s Artemis III mission is coming up as soon as next summer, a triple-launch docking exercise in orbit around Earth between an Orion capsule full of astronauts and competing lunar landers. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon will blast off first, then Orion — which will close in for a linkup — then Musk’s Starship for a docking with Orion once Blue Moon is unleashed.
The next mission — Artemis IV slated for no sooner than 2028 — would have astronauts landing on the moon in either Blue Moon or Starship, whichever is ready first. Subsequent moonshots will alternate between the two billionaires’ landers.
Musk originally developed Starship for Mars, intending to launch scores of them with the red planet’s first settlers. For now, he plans to focus on the moon and use Starship to haul satellites into orbit by the truckload, phasing out the company’s frailer Falcon 9 rocket within several years. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and a third is planned for Louisiana.
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SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lifts off for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A man watches at sunset as SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Seagulls fly near the site of SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
David Orr camps out near the site where SpaceX's mega rocket Starship, behind right, is preparing for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
David Orr rides his bike past SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
