Nats can't bring Wood home, then collapse in 10th (updated)

This was always going to be James Wood Night at Nationals Park, no matter how the 21-year-old performed in his major league debut, no matter the outcome of the Nats’ series opener against the Mets.

But as early evening turned to dusk turned to night on South Capitol Street, it became clear this game was going to come down to Wood at the plate – or the bases – with a chance to be the hero.

The only problem: Wood needed at least some help from his teammates, and alas they provided none at the critical moment of the game. Which then set the stage for the proceedings to flip entirely in the other direction.

A six-run top of the 10th by the Mets, five of those runs scoring off Hunter Harvey, ultimately was the difference in what devolved into a bizarre, 9-7 Mets victory, spoiling Wood’s highly anticipated debut before a crowd of 26,719 that desperately wanted to go home happy but instead left disappointed.

"Obviously, that's the end goal," the sport's No. 3-ranked prospect said at the end of a long, emotional day. "I wish we'd come out with a win. But we've got another one tomorrow, and that's all I'm focused on."

Wood did his part to try to help his team win, reaching base three times via a second-inning single, a ninth-inning error that made him the potential winning run in scoring position and a 10th-inning walk that extended the game. But after reaching third base twice, he never reached the plate, the Nationals’ season-long struggles to drive in runs coming back to haunt them again.

A game of twists and turns saw the Nats take an early 2-0 lead, then give three runs back to the Mets in the sixth and force themselves to have to rally late. They did just that, tying the game 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth in a most appropriate way.

With two outs and a runner on first, Joey Meneses blooped a hit into shallow right field. The ball then took a weird bounce and scooted past Tyrone Taylor, offering plenty of time for Jesse Winker to race all the way home from first with the tying run. As the boisterous crowd of 26,719 cheered with approval, surely many among them immediately thought of Juan Soto’s franchise-altering hit that scooted past Trent Grisham in the 2019 National League Wild Card Game.

This game now tied, Davey Martinez sent closer Kyle Finnegan to the mound for the top of the ninth. Finnegan responded with a 1-2-3 inning, setting the stage for the kid to lead off the bottom of the inning with a chance to send everyone home happy.

Wood nearly did it, though not exactly how anyone could’ve envisioned. He hit a little dribbler to the left of the mound, then busted down the line as reliever Jake Diekman’s throw sailed wide. As his helmet flew off, Wood stopped and thought about picking it up, only to realize he still needed to run to second. 

"As soon as that ball was hit, I'm just trying to hustle and make it difficult for him," he said. "I was just trying to apply pressure, and then I saw the ball go past him. At first, I kind of hesitated. I didn't really know if I was going to be able to get to second on it. Then I saw it kick, and I took off from there."

Wood slid in safely, gave a sheepish grin to the dugout and then hoped one of his teammates would drive him in.

That didn’t happen. Keibert Ruiz and Luis García Jr. each grounded out. And though Jacob Young drove a ball to right field, Taylor was just able to chase it down and make a sno-cone catch to end the ninth and force extra innings.

"One, we've got to try to get that guy over," Martinez said of the first two at-bats with Wood on second base. "And we've got to try to get the ball in the air. We had three shots to drive him in; we just couldn't do it."

Harvey took the mound for the 10th, perhaps still stinging from last week’s extra-inning meltdown in San Diego, and promptly re-lived the nightmare. The right-hander opened the frame by drilling Harrison Bader with a fastball, then served up a three-run homer to J.D. Martinez on an 0-2 splitter (the same pitch that gave him trouble against the Padres). A double and RBI triple followed later on to make it a four-run inning. And when Jose Iglesias launched a two-run homer off Jordan Weems to make it a six-run inning, any realistic chance of one last rally by the home team was out the window.

"Just not doing my job," Harvey said. "Not making pitches. And letting the guys down."

Turns out the Nats did score four runs in the bottom of the 10th and brought Wood back to the plate with two outs and a chance to extend the game. He managed to draw a five-pitch walk, giving Ruiz a chance at redemption representing the tying run. Ruiz delivered an RBI single, giving García a chance as the potential winning run, but the young second baseman struck out to end the game.

Final score aside, it was a successful debut for Wood. On the rarest of rarities – a cool, dry, breezy July evening in D.C. – a fired-up crowd roared each time his name was mentioned by public address announcer Jerome Hruska, saluted him when he took his position in left field for the top of the first and then gave him a standing ovation when he stepped to the plate for the first time as a major leaguer in the bottom of the second.

That first at-bat offered up a perfect encapsulation of Wood’s offensive abilities. Facing Mets left-hander David Peterson, he worked to a full count, fouled off the first 3-2 sinker he saw, then unleashed a mighty swing at the next one. The ball shot off his bat at 106.7 mph and screamed past shifted third baseman Mark Vientos into left-center field for a loud single.

"I was just kind of looking for a fastball," he said. "His fastball's got some run, some sink on it, so I was trying to push it up and away, especially after I swung through the one down. And then I was just able to get one."

Wood raced to first base, and as the Nationals were busy making sure they retrieved the ball for him, the 21-year-old turned toward the dugout and enjoyed his first celebratory hip shake.

Wood reached the big leagues in large part because of his bat, but his legs played no small role as well. And he immediately showed those off when he broke from first on a pitch to Ruiz and never stopped until he reached third on the single to right.

Unfortunately, that’s where Wood remained when Nick Senzel grounded into an inning-ending double play, a feat Vargas would duplicate one inning later. Fortunately, that second double play came after the Nationals strung together four straight quality plate appearances to score two runs.

A seven-pitch walk by CJ Abrams set the stage, with Lane Thomas singling to right moments later. Then back-to-back RBI singles up the middle by Harold Ramírez and Meneses gave the Nats a 2-0 lead without the aid of their newly added slugger.

MacKenzie Gore already was pitching with some well channeled emotion prior to that point. Once his teammates gave him the lead, the left-hander took things into another gear, pumping out 98 mph fastballs and yelling both at and with himself at various points along the way.

"There was some buzz out there tonight," Gore said, "and it was a lot of fun."

Gore, who like Abrams was acquired along with Wood in the great Juan Soto Trade of 2022, got through a scoreless first, thanks to a nifty 5-4-3 double play started by Senzel and turned by Vargas. He then retired nine in a row, five via strikeout, before getting into a fourth-inning jam with two runners in scoring position. He responded by striking out Taylor on three pitches to end the inning.

The only knock on Gore – and it was a familiar one – was his escalating pitch count as he retook the mound for the top of the sixth. He recorded two outs, but with a runner on second and his pitch count up to 104, he got a visit from Martinez, who didn’t make any signal to the bullpen until after he spoke to his starter.

"It was hard to take him out, but he had (104) pitches," the manager said. "I'm going to take care of our kids. We need them. He understood. It's tough, because he gave us a strong outing, but I thought I brought the right guy out there in that situation."

Gore departed to a big ovation from the crowd, which then turned cheers into groans after Derek Law allowed yet another inherited runner to score. (That’s now 18 of 27 on the season for the reliever.) And it only got worse from there when Abrams let a grounder scoot right through his legs to allow the inning to proceed and Francisco Alvarez ripped a two-run double to left-center that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead and denied Gore any chance at his seventh win.

"I felt good, but it was the right thing to do," the lefty said of his mid-inning departure. "That's a lot (of pitches). And 5 2/3 ... as much as I wanted to stay in, it was the right thing to do."

There was still plenty more drama to come, though, before this game would come to an end. An end that didn't produce the fairy tale finish everyone wanted, but proved no less meaningful to the young man at the center of it all.

How did Wood's major league debut compare in reality to what he dreamt about the last 21 years?

"Times ten," he said with a smile. "That's really all I can say about it. It was unreal."