Nats ready to turn page toward future after long road trip

ST. PETERSBURG -- By the time the Nationals land back in Washington D.C. on Sunday evening, they will have traveled more than 5,000 miles in the past 10 days.

Their nine-game journey across America took them to cities in three different time zones, from Denver to San Diego to St. Petersburg, where their trip finally ended Sunday with a 5-0 loss to the Rays.

It’s a trek that would make anyone beckon for the comforts of home, but especially these Nationals, who are more than ready to turn the page to Monday, when James Wood, MLB’s No. 3 prospect (and the Nationals’ No. 1), is expected to make his big league debut against the Mets. The game will be aired on MLB Network.

“Whenever somebody like that comes up who has all the hype, you’re just excited as well to be able to see him go out there.” pitcher Patrick Corbin said.

Wood has been tearing up Triple-A pitching for the Rochester Red Wings this year, logging a .353/.463/.595 slash line with 10 homers and 26 extra-base hits in 190 at-bats.

“We've heard about him all year,” outfielder Jesse Winker said. “It's cool. It's the start of a new career, and it's going to be an exciting career. Looking forward to congratulating him and watch him do his thing.”

The Nats could have used Wood’s powerful bat Sunday as they were shut down by Rays right-hander Taj Bradley and struck out 16 times overall, their most in a game since the penultimate day of the 2022 season.

Bradley, mixing his high-90s four-seamer with hard splitters and cutters, tied a career high with 11 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

“He pitched unreal today,” Winker said. “... When he's doing that, there's not much you can do to combat it. You just try to try to get the fastball down, but he kept hitting the top rail and then he had a really good splitter and cutter to go along with it. So hats off to him.”

The Nationals were able to mount a couple of threats on the afternoon, but much like Friday’s loss and the first six innings of Saturday’s contest, nothing came of them.

They stranded runners on second and third once Winker grounded out to close the third inning. In the sixth, Winker said Bradley “blew my doors off” with a 96 mph fastball for his final strikeout of the day. Two batters later, Luis García Jr. flew out to the edge of the warning track in left field against reliever Colin Poche to leave two more runners aboard.

On the other side, Corbin made it through six innings but was done in by two elevated sinkers in the second inning that Isaac Paredes and José Caballero yanked into the left-field seats to put Washington into an early 3-0 hole.

“Tough way to end our road trip here,” Corbin said, “but looking forward to getting home.”

The Nats went 3-6 on the trip. It’s understandable if their bats looked a little weary after logging so many miles. And it’s not just the players who are ready to get back into their own beds. Manager Dave Martinez’s Sunday started about six hours before the day’s first pitch as he was at a local hospital where his daughter-in-law gave birth to a baby girl named Dove, Martinez’s fifth grandchild.

“I'm pretty tired,” he admitted.

But the Nationals should be able to feed off the energy provided by another newcomer on Monday. Wood didn’t play on Saturday and Sunday for Rochester as the franchise appears to be taking it easy on the slugger ahead of his anticipated promotion.

Martinez said he expects there to be a buzz throughout Nationals Park on Monday. And once Wood officially arrives, the manager’s task will be easy:

“Get him in the lineup and have him play.”