NEW YORK _ As impactful as the Yankees' rookies have been, they took a backseat Wednesday to Washington's Juan Soto.
The 19-year-old rookie outfielder connected for two home runs at Yankee Stadium, leading the Nationals to a 5-4 win before 45,030 fans.
In splitting the two-game interleague series, the Nationals (37-28) remained a game behind the NL East-leading Braves, while the Yankees (43-20) lost their first-place hold on Boston in the AL East.
In a back-and-forth game, Yankees rookie Gleyber Torres tied it with a solo homer off right-handed starter Erick Fedde in the fifth.
But after navigating through the heart of Washington's order in the sixth, Yankees lefty Chasen Shreve served up a long, seventh-inning solo homer to Soto.
That one-out shot flew into the upper part of the right-field bleachers, giving the Nationals a 5-4 lead and adding to some history in the Bronx.
Soto became the youngest player since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989 to homer at either Yankee Stadium in a regular-season game; both players hit two homers in one game as 19-year-olds.
With three home runs in his first 19 games entering Wednesday, Soto was already the first teenager to homer in a big-league game since Harper.
After Harper's painful Tuesday night, hit by a pitch to his right elbow and absorbing a pitch off his left big toe in the Yankees' 3-0 win, the Nats star had a quiet 0-for-4 with two strikeouts on Wednesday.
Harper grounded out leading off the sixth against Shreve, his former teammate at the College of Southern Nevada _ when Harper was a catcher.
It's been an uneven season for Yankees starter Sonny Gray.
The right-hander entered Wednesday's game with a 7.22 ERA in six starts at Yankee Stadium this year, as opposed to a 2.83 ERA in six starts away from the Bronx.
And that trend continued for Gray, charged with four runs in five innings.
Adam Eaton started the game with a double and eventually scored on Anthony Rendon's sacrifice fly, and Gray picked off runners at first to end both the second and third innings.
But Gray's luck didn't hold out in the fourth, after retiring the first two batters.
After ex-Met Daniel Murphy walked, Matt Adams singled off the right-field wall and Soto followed with his first homer of the night.
Soto's fly ball that drifted just over the left-field fence, near the corner, to give Washington a 4-3 lead.
It was the eighth homer yielded by Gray this year, with seven of them coming in the Bronx.
Just five for his last 40 (.125) entering Wednesday, Greg Bird found himself batting seventh in the lineup with Didi Gregorius _ coming off a two-homer Tuesday night _ elevated to No. 3.
"Just kind of slept on it and felt like it made the most sense," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of his decision to drop Bird down the order.
That decision paid immediate dividends as Bird launched a solo homer in his first at-bat, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the second off Fedde.
Bird also doubled to lead off the seventh, but was stranded _ keeping the Nats ahead 5-4.
A former first-round pick (18th overall) in 2014, Fedde was charged with four runs in five innings _ his first-ever appearance against the Yankees.
Aaron Judge doubled and scored on Giancarlo Stanton's third-inning, two-out ground single that eluded third baseman Anthony Rendon. Judge's sac fly had put the Yanks on the board in the first.
It was a rough night on the bases for the Nationals, who managed to have four players make outs on the bases in just the second and third innings.
After Wilmer Difo lined into a double play, taking a runner out of scoring position, Soto was picked off by Gray to end the second.
Eaton was out stretching a single in the third, on Brett Gardner's quick relay and Torres' deft tag. Trea Turner followed with a single and was promptly picked off by Gray, a play that survived Washington's relay challenge _ a lengthy review of 3:07.
