Washington Nationals news & notes: James Wood goes pull-side in win over the Phillies…

Notes and quotes on James Wood hitting a monster shot to right field for the first time in the majors…

Davey Martinez talked at length before the series finale with the Phillies on the road in Citizens Bank Park on Sunday about all of James Wood’s homers to that point (and most of his doubles too) being opposite field shots, which he said was primarily a result of the way opposing pitchers were attacking the 21-year-old rookie early in his time in the big leagues.

“Right now,” Martinez explained, as quoted by Washington Post writer Spencer Nusbaum on X/Twitter, “… they’re throwing a lot of breaking balls, a lot of balls away. When they do come in, it’s typically balls. He’s looking for the ball middle away right and stay on the baseball that way. Once he establishes that and they start coming in religiously, you’ll start seeing the pull-side power. He is getting his hits over there. He’s hitting line drives really hard. A lot on breaking pitches. But it’s good he’s staying back and hitting them that hard, that’s part of the growing up here, Those will come.”

Martinez said he’s seen this all play out before with another former National in their first weeks in the majors.

“It was the same thing with Juan Soto,” Martinez told reporters. “His first few home runs were the other way, we thought, ‘Man, this guy.’ It took him a little bit before he started pulling balls, where he could. Now he’s just a beast, as we all know. I feel the same way about James. I think he’s going to get to that pull side, he’s going to start juicing balls that way. But for now he’s doing a great job staying on, driving balls the other way and hitting home runs to center field and left-center field. Just a matter of time before it happens.”

Nine innings later, Wood got hold of a 3-1 fastball up and in (a little bit off the plate) and he absolutely crushed it, hitting a 417 ft. shot to right-center for his 5th this season, and his first pull-side home run, which put the Nationals up 6-4 in their lone win in the four-game series in Philly.

How’d it feel to pull one this time?

“It felt good. He had a good fastball, so I was trying to be ready for it,” Wood said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco.

“It kind of just happened. He’s throwing 97-98 (mph), so if I try to aim it anywhere, I’m going to be in trouble. So I was just trying to hit it hard.”

If you think he was stressing about not hitting one to his pull side before that, you haven’t been paying attention to the way Wood approaches this game.

“It counts the same,” he said, wherever it goes out. “I’m happy no matter where it goes.”

“Wood crushed the ball,” Martinez said in his post game scrum. “Everybody talks about ‘pull the ball’ — he pulled that one. But that’s what he can do. He stayed on the ball really well, got his hands through and he smoked it.”