Wood serves as DH while Bell gets breather in finale vs. Mets

The Nationals are looking to win three of four games against the Mets, the hottest team in baseball. To do so in Monday’s late afternoon finale of this four-game wraparound series, manager Davey Martinez is trotting all four of his outfielders into the starting lineup.

James Wood will serve as the designated hitter against Mets starter Griffin Canning. Alex Call takes over left field while Jacob Young and Dylan Crews remain in center and right, respectively.

Wood has now been in the Nats’ starting lineup for all 29 games to start the season. But this will only be the fourth time he’ll serve as the DH, which has been a part of the team’s plans to keep the big outfielder fresh and healthy after he dealt with left quad tendinitis during spring training.

“As we know in spring training, he had a little (quad) issue. So every now and then, I want to try to get him a DH day,” Martinez said of Wood during his pregame media session. “I think he's played in every game this year. But I talked to him, and he loves to play. But I think in order to keep him healthy and keep him going, DHing him one day and keeping him off his feet is good.”

Wood has slashed .257/.361/.543 with a .904 OPS, a team-leading eight home runs and 10 RBIs. And while he has -1 Defensive Runs Saved, per FanGraphs, in left field, that is already a major improvement from the -7 he posted last year.

Call has also made the most of his playing time to start the year. In 19 games, he has slashed .327/.429..429 with an .857 OPS, nine RBIs and 11 walks to just four strikeouts. Defensively, he’s posted a -2 DRS in the outfield, while having zero in limited action in left.

“The other thing too is Alex has helped us win some games. Get him back out there,” Martinez said. “Our outfield right now with those three guys is really, really good. But I'm just trying to keep everybody involved. I really am. That's part of it.”

Meanwhile, Bell, who signed a one-year, $6 million contract over the offseason, has been off to a slow start at the plate as the Nats’ everyday designated hitter. The switch-hitter has slashed .140/.238/.290 with a .528 OPS, four home runs and 13 RBIs in 26 games, 22 of which he served as the DH.

He did, however, start yesterday’s seventh-inning rally with an RBI single, maybe showing signs of things to come.

“Josh, throughout his struggles, we talked about this, his ability to get timely hits for us has been awesome so far this year,” Martinez said. “And there's gonna come a point in time where we all know that he's going to get hot. And like I said, he can carry us for a while. Just that base hit yesterday, driving in a run, that was the boost for us right there, too. But he gets a day today, he'll be ready to pinch-hit. It's nice to have a switch-hitter off the bench that can possibly hit a home run for us if we needed him to.”

* Here are the pitching probables for the Nats’ series against the Phillies in Philadelphia this week:

Tuesday – LHP MacKenzie Gore vs. RHP Zack Wheeler
Wednesday – RHP Jake Irvin vs. TBA
Thursday – RHP Brad Lord vs. TBA