Bell's recent surge continues with right-handed homer

The only real offensive highlight of Tuesday night's 2-1 loss at Nationals Park was Josh Bell's bottom-of-the-ninth homer. A homer that was a long time coming for the switch-hitting slugger, because it came from the right side of the plate.

Though he has been breaking out of his season-long funk as a left-handed batter over the last two weeks, Bell hadn't shown much as a right-handed batter yet. The switch-hitter entered Tuesday's game just 2-for-25 on the season when batting righty against a left-handed pitcher.

So his 410-foot homer to left-center off Reds lefty Amir Garrett was significant. Both because it finally got the Nationals on the board and got them to within one run of the Reds in the bottom of the ninth. But also because it offered the first real evidence this season of Bell's ability to have success while batting right-handed.

"I thought he had a great at-bat," manager Davey Martinez said during his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "He laid off some pretty good sliders in the dirt. And then he got a ball up where he can handle it, and he smoked it to left-center field. That's good for us. If he can start doing that right-handed, we're going to be in great shape."

Bell wound up reaching base three times in four plate appearances Tuesday. In addition to the late homer, he singled up the middle and drew a walk.

His first three plate appearances came batting left-handed, which has always been his more productive side of the plate and in the last two weeks has provided the bulk of his turnaround from a wretched start.

Bell bottomed out May 12, when his batting average dipped to .133, his on-base percentage to .198 and his OPS to .487. Since then, he's batting .395 (15-for-38) with three homers, a .452 on-base percentage and 1.136 OPS.

That might explain in part why Martinez made the decision he did moments after Bell homered Tuesday night. His team now trailing by one run, the Nationals manager sent Ryan Zimmerman up to pinch-hit for Kyle Schwarber. The move didn't pay off - Zimmerman grounded to third - but it provided a rare moment in which Martinez elected to use his best bat off the bench to replace his cleanup hitter.

"Just the guy he was facing," Martinez said, referencing the left-handed Garrett. "This is a guy who's got a really, really good sweeping slider and is tough on lefties. It's going to happen every now and then. I'm going to have to hit for him against tough lefties like that. I thought it was a good opportunity for Zim to come up there, hit a home run. I was looking for Zim to just hit the ball hard somewhere. And it just didn't happen."