James

Wood

Wood led off the first inning with a base hit, then later gave the Nationals the lead with a solo blast off Brandon Eisert in the seventh before extending the team’s lead with a single to drive in a run in the eighth. The 23-year-old outfielder has hit .257/.351/.477 with 31 homers, 87 runs scored, 94 RBI, and 15 steals across 686 plate appearances.

Wood became the second-ever National to reach 30 homers and 15 stolen bases with the effort. The 23-year-old hit both roundtrippers to center, and both traveled well over 430 feet. As expected, there have been some ups and downs for Wood in his first full MLB season, but there’s been way more good than bad. He has a chance to be a special fantasy baseball player. This version is pretty dang good, too.

Wood smacked a one-out double off of Hurston Waldrep in the first inning but wound up getting stranded at third base. The 23-year-old slugger then tagged Dylan Lee for a 416-foot (102.7 mph EV) solo shot to lead off the eighth inning, pulling the Nationals to within a run at 3-2. On the season, he’s now slashing .255/.351/.465 with 28 homers, 90 RBI and 15 stolen bases (in 22 attempts) over 672 plate appearances.

Wood is back in Washington’s lineup after sitting out Monday’s series opener with tough lefty Chris Sale toeing the rubber for Atlanta. The 23-year-old fantasy star has struck out a staggering 215 times this season, which puts him just eight behind Mark Reynolds for the all-time single-season record, which was set back in 2009.

Wood also sat against Sale when the Braves faced him last week. He’s hitting just .208/.288/.333 this month, though Statcast thinks he’s been pretty unlucky, crediting him with a .335 xwOBA.

Wood didn’t truly fill up the box score today, but this was still one of his best games of the second half; he put the ball in play four times, all at over 100 mph. While he doesn’t have a ton to show for it, he’s sporting a ridiculous 76% hard-hit rate this month. Of course, it does hurt that he has 28 strikeouts to go along with his 33 balls in play in 67 plate appearances.

CJ Abrams is also getting a breather in this one. Wood takes a seat against Atlanta ace Chris Sale after striking out four times in the front-end of Tuesday’s twin bill at Nationals Park. It’ll be Josh Bell taking over at DH and Nasim Nuñez handling shortstop during the nightcap.

Bell has been a force of nature over the past week, batting .391 (9-for-23) with four homers and 15 RBI over his last seven games. The 33-year-old veteran slugger takes a seat in this one with righty Mike Burrows toeing the rubber for Pittsburgh. It’ll be Andrés Chaparro getting an opportunity at the cold corner with franchise building block James Wood at DH.

Finally on the upswing after his second half malaise, Wood scalded his doubles 115 mph and 104 mph respectively to help the Nationals’ lineup come alive after they were down 3-0 heading into the sixth inning. More importantly, he made a perfect throw from right field to stop the tying run from scoring in the ninth and help Jose Ferrer avoid what would have been an embarrassing blown save. He has an .803 OPS over the last 30 days and hopes to end the season on a high note after a multiple month cold spell.

The 22-year-old budding superstar will get a rare night off with left-hander Ryan Weathers toeing the slab for the Marlins. Paul DeJong will function as the team’s designated hitter and will bat seventh on Thursday evening in Miami.