CLEVELAND — The last time the Washington Nationals were over .500 this late in the season, James Wood was days away from being selected in the second round of the Draft by the San Diego Padres, Curtis Mead was playing for the Single-A Charleston RiverDogs in the Tampa Bay Rays’ organization and CJ Abrams had just been selected to the Futures Game.
That day was July 1, 2021, when the Nationals had a 40-39 record before the bottom fell out on their season.
On Monday, that trio of Wood, Mead and Abrams helped power the Nationals to a 10-2 win over the Guardians to push their record to 28-27.
“It’s fun winning baseball games,” manager Blake Butera said.
Wood got things started early with a leadoff shot on Tanner Bibee’s sixth pitch of the game. It was the classic Wood homer, as it left his bat at 107.7 mph and traveled a Statcast-projected 412 feet to right-center field.
“What he can do is pretty unbelievable,” Butera said. “The ability he has to lay off pitches and work walks. He’s fun to watch hit.”
That was part of a big first inning highlighted by a homer from Mead to left field that was caught by a fan aptly wearing a Team Australia shirt.
Mead followed that up by adding another homer in the fifth inning off Guardians reliever Matt Festa, marking the first multihomer game of his career.
“Couldn’t be happier for him to get this opportunity," Butera said of Mead. “The spot he was in was hard, and to be able to get him some rhythm goes a long way to get him some confidence.”
After opening the season primarily as a pinch-hitter and utility option, Mead has blossomed into a bona fide everyday option for the Nationals and is now slashing .264/.400/.509 in 65 plate appearances this month.
“I try not to think about it and keep playing the game and enjoying it, but to get to this point hasn’t been a straight line,” Mead said. “I give a lot of credit to Blake and the staff for being straight up when I got here… he assured me that if I took care of my opportunities that there’d be more coming. It’s been nice to get a little more consistent playing time.”
Those homers were part of another fantastic day for the Nationals' offense, as Jared Young and Luis García Jr. both put balls in the seats in the second inning, while Abrams’ blast came in the form of a no-doubt shot in the third inning. The Nationals ended with six homers in the win.
“It’s so impressive, and coming out of the gates against an arm like Bibee isn’t easy but it sets the tone early on,” Butera said.
The five home runs Bibee gave up tied Cleveland's franchise record.
"I feel like it's a pretty well-documented thing that they've been a really good offense, and they showed it," Bibee said.
The Nationals entered Monday’s game first in the Majors in home runs (28), extra-base hits (78), doubles (45), slugging percentage (.477), OPS (.809) and runs scored (105) since May 6.
Well-documented, indeed.
“When we get off rolling in the first, it just sets the tone for the rest of the night,” Butera said.
That offensive barrage backed a solid pitching performance from Zack Littell, who allowed just one run across the final seven innings of the game in relief of starter PJ Poulin.
While Littell ended the eighth inning with 94 pitches, he lobbied Butera to let him pitch the ninth, in part so the Nationals’ bullpen would be able to take the night off as they approach the end of their stretch of playing 16 games in 16 days.
“That was the perfect opportunity to give the guys in the bullpen a break, so I told Blake I wanted them to be able to take a break,” Littell said.
Littell is no stranger to a winning clubhouse (he's pitched in four postseasons), and he’s beginning to see a lot of those familiar traits in Washington's clubhouse, especially considering the Nationals got into Cleveland late after a long rain delay in Atlanta on Sunday.
“It would have been really easy for us to come in sluggish,” Littell said, “but we continue to come out, work and do what we do.”