James Wood’s home run robbery, 3-run shot push Nationals past Cardinals

The best night of James Wood’s season will be remembered for his three epic feats. In the fourth inning Monday night, the Nationals right fielder robbed a home run with a leaping, over-the-wall grab. In the eighth inning, he lined a game-tying, three-run homer to center field. And after both, the stoic All-Star smiled wide.

“It’s hard to get it out of him sometimes,” Washington manager Blake Butera joked after the Nationals ended a five-game losing streak and avoided another eighth-inning implosion with a 9-6 comeback win over the St. Louis Cardinals. “I think that’s what makes him great, too. … To see him hit that big home run, see him with the smiles, you always feel great seeing that.”

The Nationals (4-6) knew Wood was capable of nights like this. He’d scuffled at the plate over the team’s first nine games, never topping two hits in a series. His batting average entering Monday was .125; his on-base-plus-slugging percentage, just .572.

But Wood is blessed with rare gifts — length, power, humility — and the Nationals needed every one of them against St. Louis. His personal-favorite highlight came in the fourth, when he lost his hat as he ranged over near the right-field foul pole, reached over the wall and robbed Nolan Gorman of a home run. After throwing the ball back toward the infield, he extended his hand over the wall once more to high-five disbelieving teammates in the bullpen.

“I just feel like defense is something I’ve been working a lot on, so I feel like that kind of helps the numbers up a little bit,” Wood said.

His most consequential highlight came four innings later. In the top of the eighth, Wood had watched the Cardinals (5-5) take a 4-3 lead on a homer that, this time, soared far over his head and beyond the right-field wall. The Cardinals tacked on two more to make it 6-3, another late-inning dagger from an unreliable Nationals bullpen.

The night before, a rescue mission after a late-game collapse against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers had proven too difficult. On Monday, in the Nationals’ first game of the season against a team that missed the 2025 postseason, a rally was more doable.

After Drew Millas and Jorbit Vivas singled, Wood strode to the plate against St. Louis reliever Ryne Stanek. On a 2-2 count, the right-hander tested Wood with a 99-mph fastball at the knees.

“I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Wood said. “He made a couple good pitches early, and he’s so hard, so you always got to be ready for the fastball. I was just able to get one, I was able to do something.”

The ball made a beeline for center field, rising only barely into the night sky at Nationals Park. The 18-degree launch angle on Woods’ third homer this season was the lowest for any 2026 home run in Major League Baseball thus far.

“I’ve seen him enough to know that every time he steps up to the plate,” third baseman Brady House said, “it’s dangerous, for sure.”

Wood had help Monday. One of baseball’s most surprising offenses offers plenty of it, up and down the lineup. House followed Wood’s blast with a go-ahead two-run homer, and CJ Abrams added a solo shot to give the Nationals a three-run advantage heading into the ninth.

House had a game-high three hits in the win, raising his batting average to .333, and was strong defensively.

“It’s been huge to see, and I know it’s only been 10 games,” Butera said of House. “So we need to make sure this continues throughout the year. But just what he’s done, it’s really a credit to him.”

Of course, the Cardinals knew a back-and-forth night like this might be possible as well. Washington’s bullpen entered the series opener with the fifth-worst ERA (5.85) in baseball. Once starter Zack Littell left after the fifth inning, their offense found its groove, almost on cue.

Ken Waldichuk allowed three runs in 2 1/3 innings, including the go-ahead blast to Jordan Walker in the eighth inning that gave St. Louis a 4-3 lead. Andre Granillo gave up two earned runs in two-thirds of an inning. (After the game, the Nationals announced that he’d been optioned to Triple-A Rochester.)

A small home crowd of an announced 12,319 that hadn’t seen the Nationals win yet in the District was left to grit its teeth as Cionel Pérez, who struggled mightily Sunday, closed out the game in the ninth inning.

“I feel like we kind of believe in ourselves,” Wood said. “I mean, the bullpen, we’re going to pick them up, and they’re going to pick us up. So today, we had their back, and we were just able to help them out a little bit today, but we know there’s days where we’re not going to be hitting all that great.”

The early going was smooth enough. Littell, who signed with the Nationals less than a month ago and didn’t throw in spring training until mid-March, offered St. Louis batters the same treatment he accorded Phillies batters last Tuesday.

After throwing 75 pitches in a 3-2 loss in Philadelphia, Littell allowed just one earned run and four hits and struck out six batters over 70 pitches and five innings Monday.

“I think we’re going to continue to see Zack get better and better as he gets into these next several starts and starts getting to that rhythm,” Butera said. “But his stuff today looked the best it’s looked.”

It helped to have Wood by his side. Littell said he’d never had a teammate rob a home run while he was pitching until Monday night. When the moment arrived again in the eighth inning, Littell said he knew to expect the “incredible.”

“In those spots … I don’t want to say it’s almost inevitable,” he said. “But it was almost not surprising that he gets in there and does something like that.”