Wood's clutch triple proves the difference in Nats' 4-3 win (updated)

The situation practically begged for James Wood to do something big. Though the Nationals were leading at the time, the prospect of pulling off a 1-0 victory given the current state of their bullpen felt risky at best.

So here was a golden opportunity to extend that lead: Bases loaded, one out in the bottom of the sixth, Wood at the plate as the crowd tried to will the rookie outfielder to a clutch hit.

And when Wood’s sinking liner to left got past a diving Jackson Chourio and rolled all the way to the wall, that crowd roared as four Nationals sprinted around the bases, three of them scoring in front of Wood, who stopped at third with the clutch triple that proved the difference in a tight, 4-3 victory and a series win over the Brewers.

"That was a big moment, and he came through," manager Davey Martinez said of his 21-year-old phenom. "The kid's going to be OK."

It was the latest in a string of clutch hits by Wood, the 21-year-old phenom whose first month in the big leagues has featured plenty of ups and downs and still leaves much to be desired. But what Wood has lacked in consistency, he has made up for in frequently rising to the occasion in big spots.

Wood is now batting .303 (10-for-33) with runners in scoring position, four of his seven total extra-base hits coming in those situations. He has 20 RBIs in 29 major league games, a rate that extrapolates out to 112 over an entire season.

"I try and treat it like another at-bat," he said. "I mean, I know it's not. Obviously, runners in scoring position is an important part of the game. But I try and just treat it, approach-wise and with my plan, try and treat it like any other at-bat."

This hit came at a most opportune moment for the Nationals, who got an excellent start out of Mitchell Parker but still held the slimmest of leads in the bottom of the sixth, the game’s lone run to that point coming on Luis García Jr.’s first-inning homer (the red-hot second baseman’s latest big hit).

The Nats loaded the bases against Milwaukee lefty Hoby Milner, getting singles by CJ Abrams and Juan Yepez, then (after García struck out) a rare infield single by catcher Keibert Ruiz. To the plate stepped Wood, already 1-for-2 on the afternoon but now facing a left-hander with a funky arm angle in a critical spot. He took an 89 mph sinker over the plate for strike one, then got another one in an even better location and did a fine job keeping his front shoulder closed as he drove the ball to the opposite field.

"Last time we faced him, we chased a lot of bad pitches," Martinez said of Milner. "We were trying to get him up in the zone, and we were able to hit the ball well."

Chourio could’ve pulled up and held Wood to a single, but the Brewers left fielder decided to try for the spectacular play, came up short and had to jump to his feet and chase the ball down at the warning track. Abrams and Yepez scored easily, with Ruiz chugging around to narrowly beat the throw to the plate long after Wood had already reached third base behind him.

"It's a 1-0 game. Anything can happen," Wood said. "I was just trying to get a run in and give our bullpen a little more insurance there."

That hit indeed made it 4-0 and left Parker seemingly comfortable in line for a win he probably had been anticipating for several weeks.

Forgive Parker if he wanted to erase all memory of his last start against the Brewers, a nightmare of an outing last month in Milwaukee in which he recorded only two outs while allowing five runs and was pulled in the bottom of the first after a whopping 46 pitches. There was no repeat performance today, not even close.

Parker mostly cruised through the early innings, thanks both to his strike-throwing (21 of 32 pitches) and a pair of inning-ending double plays to close out both the first and third. The latter of those two – on a lineout to short – helped the lefty escape a two-on, one-out jam.

But there was more to this outing than that. Though he opened the game with a zero on the scoreboard, Parker's fastball velocity was down several ticks, checking in under 90 mph. He quickly realized what he was doing wrong - trying to push the ball, as opposed to getting full extension - and was able to self-correct by the second inning.

"I like to feel like I'm getting on top of it, and I was just getting really behind it, not really throwing it," he said. "It's been there here and there. Not much this year, but it has been there in the past. Luckily, we were able to get it quick and be able to get on top of it."

Parker faced another tough spot in the fifth when Andruw Monasterio laced a one-out double to left-center. But he calmly got out of the jam by inducing a fly ball out of Joey Ortiz and then striking out Garrett Mitchell looking at a perfectly placed 3-2 slider on the outside corner.

"We talked about it when we had the mound visit (prior to the at-bat)," Parker said. "Just keep it up, keep sliders away. We were trying to keep that game plan, and luckily the slider away was there for the strikeout."

Martinez pulled his starter after six shutout innings on 87 pitches and hoped the four-run lead would be enough for a bullpen that has become a daily roll of the dice since the trades of Hunter Harvey and Dylan Floro, with no more proven setup men in front of closer Kyle Finnegan.

Martinez gave the seventh to Derek Law, who quickly retired the side on nine pitches. He gave the eighth to Robert Garcia, who quickly made a mess of things. The left-hander surrendered three runs, including Gary Sánchez’s towering homer to left-center, turning a four-run lead into a one-run nailbiter.

"I spoke to him today about these (high-leverage) situations," Martinez said. "He's going to be fine. He's got to understand, for him it's really about staying in the moment, getting to the next pitch and not trying to do too much."

Garcia's struggles didn't ultimately matter today, because Jacob Barnes finished the eighth before Finnegan came on to close it out in the ninth and make sure Wood’s latest clutch hit would also represent the game-winning hit. Not to mention the hit that clinched the Nationals' first season series win over the Brewers since 2015.

"They're a good team, but we've been saying all year we feel like we can play with anybody in the league," Finnegan said. "I think we've won both series against them this year, and they're looking like a playoff team. It's just a testament to what we have in this clubhouse."