James Wood's frustrations mount as Nationals drop fourth straight

Washington Post

a day ago

It takes a lot to get James Wood riled up. But the confluence of circumstances Saturday afternoon — an 8-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers (the Washington Nationals' fourth straight), two questionable calls from the umpiring crew and a slump that has extended longer than anyone imagined — finally qualified.
Washington's 22-year-old star kept his grievance to himself when home plate umpire Chris Guccione rung him up on a pitch well outside the zone in the third. In the sixth, when Wood appeared to check his swing on a 3-2 changeup in the dirt, Guccione ruled otherwise. The mild-mannered Wood sported a look of disbelief, raising his arm with his bat still in hand. That's all it took for interim manager Miguel Cairo to emerge from the dugout.
Guccione tossed him, the second time Cairo has been ejected in three games. Cairo responded with a two-word, seven-letter phrase not fit to print.
'Of course I'm going to get my player's back,' Cairo said. 'I'm their manager, and I care about them.'
'I definitely appreciate that, and I let him know that when I came back in here,' Wood said. 'And yeah, I mean, it's tough. Sometimes you don't get the benefit of the doubt. It's just nice knowing that he's there right behind you.'
Wood stayed in the game, making a handful of impressive catches in left field but — with no say in the confounding calls — finished 0 for 4 with those two strikeouts. Over his past 30 games, Wood is hitting .211 with a .633 OPS. But he was far from the only one overmatched against Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff, who dominated over six innings as the Nationals (44-66) produced a season-low two hits.
Milwaukee (66-44) again delivered death by a thousand cuts, jumping on right-hander Jake Irvin. Five of the first six Brewers reached base, prompting a mound visit from pitching coach Jim Hickey.
The Brewers had a 3-0 lead before the Nationals even stepped to the plate. The struggles also accounted for the 22nd, 23rd and 24th earned runs Irvin has allowed in the first inning, the second-most in MLB.
With the Brewers tacking on another run in the second (on a double play) and the third (on a missile of a solo home run from Christian Yelich), Irvin's day came to a close after just four innings.
'Would have liked to make better two-strike pitches,' Irvin said. 'Don't leave it over the heart of the plate.'
Irvin entered Saturday's game with the third-worst contact percentage among qualified pitchers, with teams connecting on 84.1 percent of their swings against him. While that isn't a drastic change from last season, pitchers who don't miss many bats generally need to induce soft contact to thrive. Irvin has gotten hit harder this season than he would have hoped.
And yet the game also saw a bright spot at the bottom of the lineup. There, in the malaise of the Nationals' fourth straight defeat, Robert Hassell III reintroduced himself with a bit of force.
In Hassell's third at-bat since returning to the majors, he made Woodruff work. On the fifth pitch, he fouled off a heater down the middle. On the seventh pitch, Woodruff tried a heater well above the zone. Hassell fouled that off, too, which Hassell figured would be the last time Woodruff challenged him outside the zone. Hassell was right — he got a fastball up and in, but over the plate — and sent off the second-deck railing in right field for a two-run homer.
'I've been working down in Triple-A and feel like I've been … able to pull the ball in the air a bit,' Hassell said. 'I'm swinging hard and not being defensive. My last stint up here … I was just worrying about putting the ball in play instead of really hitting hard. Swinging with some intent — that's what I was trying to do.'
It was the sort of swing the Nationals envisioned when they acquired him as part of the Juan Soto trade in 2022. After Hassell came in as a pinch hitter Friday and went 2 for 2, Cairo put him in the No. 9 spot Saturday. His homer was the only hit the Nationals had off Woodruff. But Cairo doesn't want Hassell — or anyone — to settle in just yet.
'You can see that he's here to stay, and I want to see what he's got,' Cairo said. 'I don't want him to be comfortable. I want him to be ready to play it, I want him to feel like when you're here, you've got to earn your spot.'
Hassell was optioned to Class AAA Rochester in mid-June. He went down and raked, hitting .336 with a .954 OPS during his second stint in the minor leagues. Though his groundball rate was higher than he hoped in his first time up, he has adjusted his swing since then to elevate the ball, building on some offseason work.
His productive return reintroduces a complicated puzzle for the organization, which now has to parse through a crowded outfield picture. With Wood and Dylan Crews as centerpieces of the team's future, they have four outfielders in the majors competing for two spots.
Jacob Young was a Gold Glove finalist last season and has remained one of the best defensive outfielders in MLB. Daylen Lile has been one of the team's most productive hitters over the past month. Hassell has put himself back in the mix. And the organization is quite high on Christian Franklin, acquired from the Chicago Cubs this week in the Michael Soroka trade, as a disciplined hitter with a good bit of pop in his bat.
'Nothing is going to be given to anyone,' Cairo said.