Wood & Ruiz Homer in Rout of Seattle

For those who live in Navy Yard, did you know you can order Walters online for pickup? Visit WaltersDC.com, click on menus, and then push the order online button, so it's ready when you get there to take back home with you. Were they majestic? Sorry! High fly ball, whole run. That comes down in section 140, just to the left of the bullpen. And James Wood has himself another lead-off whole run. That is his fifth this year and the eighth of his career. Bang! Zoom goes James Wood. He has tied this game into the Nationals, one of the Mariners won. Michael has set some extreme first-based side of the rubber. Now he winds and delivers. Swinging a bouncing ball right side, Nunez to his right back ends. Plants throws low, but Garcia digs it out of the dirt for out number three. So it's a one, two, three, and he from Michael is to ties the Nationals, franchise record with seven innings in relief, and for him seven scoreless innings. Check the runner at second, that's James Young. And now the pitch. Swinging a line drive to the gap in right center field. No one's catching this one. It's one off the big wall in play. Rounding third, Young, he's coasting in to score. Victor Robles took the caramoff the wall. Wood coasting in to second with another screaming line drive for his 16th double of the year. And his 46th run back into the year. As the Nationals are ported on here in the bottom of the eighth inning at Nationals Park. It's now washing tonight at Seattle One. And welcome to Natschat, I'm the Algoldi host of the Algoldi podcast. I'm joined by Washington Nationals inside our Mark Zuckerman of natchjournal.com. He's at Nationals Park. So the Nats longest winning streak in M.O.B. 2026 regular season is just four games. And yet the Nats now are 37 and 35. Why? Well, the Nats are winning series. They now are nine, two and one over their last 12 series with the two series losses being against the lowly Miami Marlins. So the Nats are eight one and one over the last 10 series. If you want to focus in even tighter, a 10 one win over the Seattle Mariners at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon to win two out of three games in the series. The Nats now 37 and 35 with a run differential of plus 13, 14 and 21 at home versus 23 and 14 on the road. Good to have you with us. This installment of Natschat brought to us by Steve Solomon's at large Canada. Steve from Montgomery County Council visit votestiefsalomon.com is early voting now is underway. And for more information on what Steve is up to, check out my conversation with him on this past Thursday's installment of my podcast, the Algoldee podcast episode 1,345. A tremendous performance by pitcher Miles Michaelis on Sunday afternoon more on that shortly. But mark another high level offensive showing by the Nats in this game. And you know, the Nats have done such a good job this season of staving off losing streaks, staving off even which you might say are potential losing streaks. Right. We had that disastrous 1110 walkoff loss at the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday followed by the 10 to loss to the Mariners at Nationals Park on Friday night. And what do the Nats do? They respond to those two losses back to back wins over Seattle and buy a combined score of 18 four so much for that two game losing streak. You know what this is a good sign of I think out of a team being good. You know, there have already been moments along the way that we thought to ourselves, well, maybe this is the beginning of the end when they get swept by the Marlins when they suffer that just awful loss in San Francisco few days ago. And they're now showing that they can bounce back from it. It's becoming a real character trait of theirs to do that. And that is the sign of a good team. It's not to say that it's not going to happen at some point. They're still more than half a season to go. So I'm not going to sit here and guarantee that they are always going to be able to bounce back when things start to get rough on them. But so far 72 games in they have done a remarkable job of not letting any bad thing fester for long coming right back and just continuing to win series eight of their last 10 series. They've now won the split another one. And as you said, the only one they lost was that sweep to the Marlins. And these are some good teams that they're playing. These are all the hallmarks, I think, of a good team. And at some point, we may have to acknowledge that the 2026 Nationals are a good team. Well, the man who runs this podcast that Tim showvers, he a few days ago, June 10th conducted a poll on X. And we know that polls on X are super scientific and always accurate. But the question that was asked was, or the Nats good, a simple question, you could approach it in a variety of ways. The winning response was yes. There were three responses you could choose from yes, no, wait till July. Number two was wait till July. Number three was no. And I was thinking about how I would answer that question. And I think my answer would be, and maybe this is kind of a cop out answer. But the Nats so far have been a good team. Now will they continue to be a good team? I don't know. But when you have a winning record with a positive run differential and elite level offense, improved starting pitching, that to me is a good team. You know, like if you're evaluating this in an objective manner without knowing the franchise, the recent history, the names of the players, the payroll, etc. That's a good team. The Nats right now in terms of what they have done or a good team. To what extent that's predicted for the rest of the season. I don't know. But in terms of what the team has done so far this season, I think the Nats have been a good team. Yeah, I can't argue with any of that. I voted wait till July when I voted in his poll the other day. But that's kind of a cop out itself. And we keep saying, well, we got to see a little bit more, a little bit more. But we are we're almost to July, we're only two weeks away. We are nine games away from the halfway point of the season. The further it goes, the more legitimate, I think that it feels and I think I'm going to feel confident saying this. This is not a bad team. If things would really, really have to fall apart and not just in the record, but just in the way that they're playing and the way they're looking. For me to get to the end of the season, say, boy, that was a bad team. I think we're past that point. I think it's fair to say that this is at the very least a surprising team with the strong potential of being a good team and more evidence of that after the first game of the series when they lost handily to the Mariners that run differential drop back into the negative territory. Well, you just said they just bounced back and in a big way, they didn't just win the next two games. They won convincingly the next two days again against a good Mariners team that is known for having a good pitching staff. I think the more they see opponents, the more the more other teams out there see of the nationals, the more other teams are impressed with what they're doing. I heard that from people around the Mariners this weekend. It's hard not to look at this and think that this is going well. I don't know what that's going to end up meeting at game 162, but you couldn't have drawn this up much better for the first 72 games. I don't think anybody could reasonably have predicted both the record, but even more than that, how they've gotten to this record and what they've done to get to 37 and 35. Well, the offense has been so good that right now you're looking at maybe the single most surprising aspect of any Nats team since the franchise came here in terms of how good this offense is. 10 more runs in this game on Sunday afternoon. 10 runs on 14 hits, which were two home runs, five doubles and seven singles, two walks, five for 14 with runners in scoring position. The Nats again scored early in a game, a one run bottom of the first, a five run bottom of the fourth, a run in the bottom of the seventh and three runs in the bottom of the eighth. And the Nats again got to a good pitcher. The Mariners starting pitcher was Emerson Hancock. He came into the game with an ERA of 2.74 over 13 games all starts in this regular season. He allowed six runs in four innings. The Nats were so impressive once again, offensively against a good starting pitcher, some aggressive batting in terms of attacking, first pitches, second pitches, etc. Some big innings, like I said, over the first few innings of this game. And you saw the Nats do damage against a guy in Emerson Hancock who had been so good so far this season. So this to me was really impressive. What they did in the fourth inning when they scored five runs. This is remarkable. I don't know if I've ever seen a rally quite like this. They sent 10 batters to the plate. Those 10 batters saw a combined 17 pitches. Seven of the last eight batters who stepped to the plate put the first pitch in play. Now, if I said to you how many runs do you think they scored with that kind of approach, you would normally say, oh, they must make quick outs, move on to the next batter. No, they scored five runs. They had five consecutive batters reach while putting the first pitch in play. I don't think I've ever seen that before. But it's a credit to them. They knew coming in that Hancock was known for throwing strikes. It's very low walk rate. And once they got through the lineup the first time, they realized, hey, he's throwing strike one. It's mostly fastballs until he just to that. Let's go right after him. And they did. And it was bam, bam, bam, bam, you couldn't even keep up with it with how quickly they were getting hits and scoring runs. I thought it was a great sign, not just of their ability, which they obviously have, but of their ability within a game, to make some adjustments to see what's happening with the opposing picture and then to implement that in such a positive way like this and James would capped a monster series for him He was an at-starting DH and number one batter got on base four times He went three for four with a solo homer and RBI double a single and a walk would in the Nats one run first a Lead off Homer to right field to tie the game at one despite having been down in the count at 1.1 to the Homer going projected 413 feet per stat cast wood in the Nats three run eighth RBI double off the right center field warning track For a 9-1 Nats lead you look at what wood did in each game in this series game one Solo Homer and a single and yet an outfield assist went two for four Game two one for four single walk and a stolen base in wood in this game three on base four times Three for four with a solo homer and RBI double a single and a walk He for the regular season now is up to 20 homeruns now has an OPS of 972 that's comprised of a 414 on base percentage and a 558 slugging percentage We talked the other day about him having this 405 100 season and how rare that is but up to 20 homeruns You do the simple math on this he has a shot at a 50 home run season like that's not out of the question with the pace He's on 20 homers over 72 games He could be going for 50 homers and 30 steals by the way, which is some pretty elite company as well There are so many things to talk about with him and every stat you come up with makes him look better and better At last check he's second in the National League in OPS to only show Hey Otoni Not a bad place to be and this might be my favorite one He has now scored 13 more runs than any player in baseball now leading off as a big part of that Having a good lineup behind you's a big part of that But you have to be able to get on base and run the base as well to do something like that He is going to score a ton of runs before this season is over Combined that with the the power the patience the base running He's putting it all together right now and Putting together the kind of season that we've only seen in the past here from guys named Harper Soto and Rendon I think those are the only ones I would I would put in that category now again Half a seat more than half a season to go we know how he tailed off last year But this is better what he's doing the first half now is better than what he was doing last year and there are increased reasons I'd think to believe that he can sustain if not quite this level something not too far off from and As we're recording this he's number one in the majors in played appearances 36 number two is the Orioles Taylor Ward at 332, but this idea of batting wood number one He has the most played appearances of any player in the majors It's not crazy to say which should be batting second or third I'm not trying to say that but like you see the logic the rationale behind him batting first He's an elite hitter and he has the most played appearances in the majors. That's ideal You know and that's by the way is of course another function of the offense being so good that that's have so many big innings The lineup turns around so many times that would keeps coming up to where he is 336 played appearances number one in the majors. I mean you could not have scripted this any better from a Nats baseball Obstampoint in terms of what is happening with wood in that number one spot. Yeah, I'll tell you what else I mean yes he's coming up to bat more than anybody else and Producing of course like that scoring all those runs like I mentioned and the idea the argument for not having a mid-lead off Would be don't you wanted to drive in more runs. Well, I'll tell you what he's got 46 RBI now That's a 103 RBI pace for the season to drive in 100 from the lead-off spot Is very difficult to do you have to be doing what James would is doing right now to be on that kind of pace so Maybe they're leaving a few of those RBI on the table by having him lead off But him getting on as much as he is scoring as much as he is and still hitting for power and still finding a way to Drive in teammates who are usually batting at the bottom of the lineup. It's hard to argue with the way that Blake Patera's handled that situation Hello Montgomery County Maryland listeners of Nats chat. This is for you I'm Steve Solomon candidate from Montgomery County Council at large You may remember me from my 20 years on local radio as Sali at the team 980 where I worked with Nats chat zone Algoldi Marksuckerman and Tim show verse I myself and my podcaster now as well I'm asking for your vote for Montgomery County Council at large over the last 10 years I've gotten much more involved in local issues in Montgomery County I'm an active member of my civic association the county civic federation. I volunteer at nonprofits I serve on the board of directors of the Montgomery County sports hall of fame the sports advisory committee and the library board Montgomery County is a great place to live We've got incredible parks libraries restaurants businesses and most of all people That's why I'm running because I think we can do better whether it's at economic development and bringing in more businesses Helping the small businesses that are already here by streamlining permitting and cutting the red tape on inspections or growing our partnerships with our thousands of amazing nonprofits doing those things will give us more money to keep all the Services and programs we love funded like programs for our seniors taking care of homeowners and renters And funding our parks libraries and erect centers once again. This is Steve Solomon I'm running for Montgomery County Council at large and I'm asking for your vote early voting runs June 11th through June 18th Election Day is June 23rd you can learn more about me or how to contact me at votestiefsolomon.com It's one on hit in the ear to right field it well sending crews back to the warning track and he leaves He makes the catch bangs out of the fence and holds on for the outs. Oh my another outstanding play by crews Navigating the wall on the warning track and then leaping and making the catch before banging into the bullpen fence Second day in a row. He's made an outstanding play going back yesterday in dead center today Going back into his left in right field Is it possible we look back on this series as the series in which Dylan Cruz truly got going Dylan Cruz on Sunday afternoon as an at-starting right fielder and number three batter one for five with a double and an RBI ground out and he made a standout defense of play crews in the top of the first a leaping catch on which he crashed into the Outfield wall on a fly out by Julio Rodriguez such a good defensive moment for crews off the great cats that he made in Game two of this series and crews in the Nats five run fourth a lead off double to left field It was Dylan Cruz who ignited that Nats five run fourth He had a terrific all-around game in game two of this series including scoring all the way from first base on the Jose ten or two on RBI single for an eight three Nats lead in the three run seventh on Saturday There's the obvious caveat of needing to see more but seeing crews contribute in each game of this series Remember Friday night he had that man with Homer albeit in garbage time. It's still a 440 foot solo Homer for the Nats in that Ten two lost to the Mariners on Friday night. What do you think Dylan Cruz could we look back on this series as the series in which Cruz truly got going? We could I don't want to go there yet because I feel like we've been fooled a couple of times before I don't want to Proclaim anything at this point But what I did like was that he contributed in meaningful ways in all three of these games And I think you're seeing that more and more with him the production was great I mean he he ripped that ball the double in this game 104 miles an hour over the left fielders head So another good swing drove in a run on a ground ball later in the game and then now back-to-back days Great almost identical catches slamming into the fence just one of them in center field one of them in the right field and then I know You saw on Saturday the base running play to score from first on a single It shows you he has the ability to impact the game in a lot of ways And I asked Blake be terror before the game on Sunday What he's noticed about Cruz's ability to separate the different parts of his game And he said that's been an especially impressive thing that he has noticed that no matter what the production may be offensively And even if he's frustrated by that part of it He is still every day doing things to help them in the field and on the bases Everyone wants to see hitting and have a success at the play the ability He has to to separate that and go play defense and not think about his hitting and then also You know be a heck of a bass runner and give us chance to get in scoring position and also score from first Just he brings a lot to the table outside of just offense and he thinks that's kind of innate to him That's the kind of player that he is and that's what we had always heard about him coming out of lsu Now you want to see the production go along with it of course and we're starting to see signs of that Even if he doesn't go on a real tear offensively I do think what we're seeing now is how he can be a legitimate contributor to a good team in his ability to impact the game in a lot of different ways I think what we can say with Dylan Cruz is that the floor is high Even if he doesn't become the franchise outfielder he was drafted to be He does enough other things well to where he will be a useful player at the major league level now You don't spend a number two overall pick on a guy to be a nice useful player You spend a number two overall pick on a guy to be a star player So you know that bar is high that's still the bar that you want to see him get to but at the very least We know he can play defense. We know he can run the base as well And you know hopefully the offense does come around you know He's nothing too we have seen over the years that's outfielders who have trouble when it comes to comes to the outfield wall who shy away from the wall get to skittish when approaching the wall. This guy like embraces the wall. I mean, this guy over these last two games is like bring it on man and he's made these two really impressive catches in crashing into the wall. We're going to see one of those guys who used to be afraid of the wall on Monday, Lane Thomas. Now, I remember the Kansas City Royals is going to be here. Nothing. It's Lane who did a lot of good things for this team, but hit a ball to the wall with him tracking back on it and you did not like usually what that result was going to be. Cruze is fearless out there and it kind of exemplifies the way he plays the game, the base running, the defense. I know this sounds like not a big thing or like I'm making a bigger thing out of something that shouldn't, but when you watch him every day, all those ground balls that he hits, he runs hard down the line every single time and he comes close to beating some of those routine grounders out. And for a guy who may have an OPS that starts with a five, I do think that's a good sign is that he cares to that extent that he's not giving up even when things haven't been going his way. He's going to play the game hard, no matter what I think he does deserve some credit for that. And what do you think about a batting third in this game? That was interesting. Dylan Cruz in the number three spot. Well, yeah, I think there were some matchup things there. I think it was maybe a sign from Blake butero of acknowledging that the process has been better even if the results haven't been better and maybe hitting in front of CJ Abrams would present him some better opportunities. And I don't know if that anything to do with it or not, we'll see what happens on Monday. But you had Cruz batting third and cable Ruiz batting fifth. Those are not spots were used to seeing them at least this year under this administration. Well, now that key bear Ruiz is Pete Coralton Fiska. I think anything's possible with where this guy bats Ruiz as an at starting catcher in number five batter three for four with a solo homer and RBI single and another single his slugging percentage for this regular season now at five zero seven unbelievable. The numbers that this guy has gotten to with the recent surge Jacob Young. He is an at starting center fielder and number nine batter two for four RBI double and another double did commit a fielding air daylin. Lyle. He is an at starting left. Fielder and number six batter one for four with an RBI double so much to like with the Nats offense in this game. And over the course of the final two games in this series. Here's the pitch. Fastballs in there strike three called at ninety eight miles an hour and a curly W and a series went over the Mariners are in the box. Clayton Beater with a quick one two three ninth inning. The nationals with a five run third broke it open. And Miles Mike was tied the franchise record for seven innings in relief seven shut on innings turning this into a victory for him here this afternoon as the nationals around the field celebrate a curly W in the box in double digits the final score of the nationals ten the Seattle Mariners won. So the Nats for this win over the Mariners on Sunday afternoon went with an opener a relief pitcher PJ Poole and he allowed one run in one inning top of the first gave up a lead off swinging bun single by Cole Young to the right side of the infielding gave up a win out opposite field double by Josh Neller to the left center field gap for a one nothing Mariners lead and also on the play was a fielding nearby center fielder Jacob Young who a bubble the ball and trying to corral it for a throw but then came starting pitcher miles Michael is into the game as the Nats book pitcher and Michael is in a lot of ways became the story of the game he was outstanding seven scoreless innings three strikeouts no walks he gave up just three hits all of which were singles he threw a lot of strikes 83 pitches 60 strikes just 23 balls and also with Michael is was the velocity being superb second time in recent outings that we note this Michael is per stat cast in this is age thirty seven season had an average forcing fastball velocity of 94.9 miles per hour and so you look at Michael is now he threw April had an ERA of 8.23 over seven games including four starts he sends the start of may has the ERA of 3.32 over eight games including two starts the turnaround of miles Michael has been tremendous I thought he was really good with you guys in terms of his post game session with reporters on Sunday afternoon some really interesting things about why he's doing better how open he has been to trying new things given his struggles over the previous three seasons and man had he argue with the recent results he has become a reliable dependable pitcher for this team I've said it before but I really think this bears repeating what Michael is and Zach Latel have done since April may be as responsible for the Nats record and and sustained success they've had now than anything else because those were two pencil him in his losses when they took the mound and right now it may not be pencil him in his wins but you know they're at least going to give you a chance if not thrive in those spots and what Michael is and really breaking down for us to help us understand what he's been doing there are some changes on the mound some mechanics changes that involved spreading his legs out a little bit having a wider base emphasizing his lower half a little bit more not kind of falling out in front and he talked about he just didn't feel like even though he felt healthy he was not throwing the ball with as much zip as he thought he should have and he didn't know if that was just age or what that was and working on some mechanical changes. I'm trying to stay in my backside a little bit better not pushing out from the mound and kind of losing my center just letting everything work around my head and and be a little more balanced and just kind of letting it rip. Changing his workout routine in the weight room where he's lifting weights less often in between starts of paying more attention to it and emphasizing some things it's allowed him to be fresher on the days that he takes the mound that's leading to that better velocity. He understands what he's trying to be as a pitcher and then as you said he has been fully open to whatever the gnats want to do with him and that often includes the opener pitching in front of him in the first inning and at least until this game it typically included him getting pulled you know at 50 60 pitches no matter how well he was doing and so I was fascinated in this one to see if Blake Bittara would do that again or if he would let him go and he had Mitchell Parker warming at one point I think it was the seventh inning but Michaelis was on cruise control the team had a big lead there was no reason to mess around with that and so Michaelis was allowed to keep pitching and he ends up going seven scored was on 83 pitches and arguably could have come back for the night then if they wanted to do that. It is stunning what Miles Michaelis is doing off how bad he looked early in the year and how bad he had been in recent years and that was part of the conversation we were having when he was struggling was you know there's really not much upside here with a guy who has been so bad in recent seasons and you know we have seen with the gnats during these rebuilding years them signed veterans who have struggled and those guys like getting worse you know like there's no turnaround you don't come to anticipate the turnaround with this guy there is a turnaround it's another sign of that process Michaelis during that session with you guys brought up the pitching coach Simon Matthews and the good work that Matthews has been doing with Miles Michaelis just remarkable how good he has been and the whole staff here has been great about you know getting me kind of on their on their program like what they see and what the ambition for me and after a couple of dad years I was was more than ready to you know listen to anything that they had to say so everyone's been great. Yeah, the gnats in this game ended up using just one pitcher beyond PJ Poole and Miles Michaelis Clayton Beater came into the game a perfect top of the ninth with two strikeouts so a terrific ending to what ended up being a successful series a series win for the gnats against the good team in Seattle now Seattle is missing some key guys including Cal Raleigh so we should note that but still Seattle's having a good season that's take two out of three all getting routed in game one on next up for the gnats is a three game series against the Kansas City Royals at Nashville's Park the Nets of list of the following starting pictures as probable for the series game one Monday evening at 645 Andrew Alvarez game two Tuesday evening at 645 Foster Griffin game three Wednesday afternoon at 105 Zach let tell per baseball reference two players were tied for number four in M.O.B. in offensive war for this regular season as of games through Saturday those two players Washington national shortstop C.J. Abrams and Kansas City Royal shortstop Bobby Whit Jr. this could be a really fun match up to of the best short stops in the sport going head to head these next three days at Nationals Park. Yeah, it's been a rough season disappointing season for the Royal so far a team that after making the playoffs not long ago you thought they had something going in the long run and Bobby what was a huge part of that as a team they have not lived up to what they were hoping to be but Bobby Whit remains really one of the best all around young players in the game and I remember a couple years ago making the comparison to Abrams that Whit was essentially one year ahead of him in his development and reaching the big leagues and having success and then the Royals gave him a gargantuan contract very early on to stay there and he signed it and we wondered would the gnats do something similar with C.J. Abrams would he still need to prove himself more obviously they have not signed him to a deal obviously he has not put together the full seasons that Whit has in recent years certainly not a defensive side as well but it is a good opportunity to compare these two guys head to head and if you're C.J. Abrams and you're his agency you certainly want to find anything. thing you can to favorably compare your client to Bobby Witt, because that's only going to help you whether it's anytime soon or whether it's several years down the road. When you're negotiating a long term deal for Abrams, you want people to say, yeah, he's just as good if not better than Bobby Witt, because he is going to get paid big time if that's the case. Absolutely. Witt is the best shortstop in the sport, though. Like I don't think there's any debate. You look at his last three seasons. I mean, he has been an MVP caliber player these last three years. Very few guys can say that. So it should be fun. These next three games at National Spark, this installment of NASHAT brought to us by Steve Solomon's at large candidacy from Montgomery County Council. Visit votestevesolomon.com as early voting now is underway for more info on what Steve is up to. Check out my chat with them on my podcast. The Algaldi podcast, the Steve was on this past Thursday show, episode 1,345. You can find us on ExitNats_Chat. You can find us on Blue Sky at NatsChat Podcast. You can email us NatsChat Podcast at gmail.com. We have T-shirts, NatsChat Podcast T-shirts. We appreciate the support very much. You can order a shirt by going to our website NatsChat Podcast.com. All nationals radio highlights on NatsChat courtesy of 1067 The Fan. For Mark's Circleman, I'm Algaldi. We thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you next time on the NatsChat Podcast. Nationals have 11 hits and the 6-1 lead the pitch. So we have its launch, right center, field and deep, back on at Canzone to the track to the wall and it's gone. Haybert Rueze puts it over the big wall and right center, 4 rows in. His third hit of the day, his sixth home of the year. (gentle music)