Wood Goes Deep Again, Nats Extend Win Streak
James Wood homered for the third time in six spring training games as the Nationals folded the Cards, 3-1.
Wood, who has hit safely in all six ST games, is now batting .500 (7-for-14) after going 2-for-3. He started in CF, joined by fellow watchlisters Jacob Young in LF and Trey Lipscomb 2B, who each went 1-for-3.
Patrick Corbin tossed three scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out four to pick up the “W.” 2023 Watchlister Amos Willingham lost the shutout in the 9th but was credited with the save.
Here’s a rundown of how the rest of the ’24 edition did coming off the bench:
- Robert Hassell subbed for Lane Thomas and drew a walk in the 8th
- Dylan Crews followed Wood in CF and tapped out to the pitcher after Hassell walked
- Brady House replaced Nick Senzel at 3B and struck out to end the 9th
- Israel Pineda was the second backstop and caught the last two innings but did not bat
- Jake Alu spelled Y-o-u-n-g in LF and had one PO but no PA
- Darren Baker subbed for Lipscomb at 2B and made two plays on defense, none on offense
Washington (4-2) returns to West Palm Beach this afternoon to face Houston as the home team. MacKenzie Gore is slated to make his second spring start. The game can be heard on MLB.com with both teams having their radio crews working.
ST so far has been a great reminder of what could be with the Nats. I haven’t been watching the ST games, but I’ve been going out of my way to check in on the box scores throughout the day. I don’t remember being so interested in any of the past STs. It would be so much fun if the big league team could be full positive stories like Wood, rather than the tedious ones of “Is this the year
RoblesKieboomGarcia finally figures things out?” (A storyline I fear we may be having about Ruiz, Gray and Gore not too long from now)On Wood, it’s great that he’s hitting with power, and doing so against legitimate pitching (not A ball scrubs to eat the late innings). But what has me most enthused is that he’s only struck out twice in 17 plate appearances. Super small sample size caveats aside, that’s a 12 K%.
Something interesting that I noticed in the box score was that despite Wood hitting his 3rd HR, Hassell is actually sporting a higher SLG and OPS. Hassell hasn’t had as many ABs as Wood, but his 3 XBH (one of each kind) is also impressive in only 9 ABs! Hope he’ll get more regular ABs this ST, rather than very late sub appearances, but that’s the problem of having so many OFs…
Just had a look at Hassell and Wood are #2 and 3 in OPS this ST: https://www.mlb.com/stats/
A reminder how little this matters at this point is that you may recognize #4 on that list: NatsProspect Alum: Daniel Johnson
Yes, super-small sample size. And yes, I’ve definitely been in the “don’t rush them” camp. But dang, if the trend line continues, at some point you move into the realm of which players give the big club the best chance to win.
Can Wood keep making contact, and keep the K’s to a minimum? Will he keep taking some walks (three so far in the spring)? I noted yesterday the good swing he put on a tough pitch, even though it resulted in an out. He really does seem to have worked on making better contact.
We’ll see. It’s certainly nice to have a few guys who we can dream on.
After 14 AB’s James Wood’s OPS is 1.731!
Hassell is a tick higher but only has 9 AB’s so far. FUN!
Should we read too much each spring into lower level prospects getting invited over to sit on the bench for A games ?
Cases in point : Cox and Peoples .
Have they earned extra attention from coaches in big camp ?
If they’ve earned attention from coaches, it’s for all the wrong reasons, based on their stat lines from 2023.
I’ve always been a bit confused by who they deem worth of eating some innings. I remember Brenner Cox was also getting playing time last season in ST, and being perplexed why such a young, developing player was getting playing time, so I wouldn’t read too much into it.