Wood, Lord, Ferrer prove versatility, contribute to all-around win

SAN FRANCISCO -- Baseball has a way of flipping the script when you least expect it.

And with one swing of the bat from James Wood in Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Giants at Oracle Park, that script was indeed turned on its head.

Wood, mired in the second-longest homerless drought of his career (21 games), cracked a leadoff homer to left-center field against Giants rookie left-hander Carson Whisenhunt. It was Wood’s third leadoff homer of his career (and just his ninth career game in the leadoff spot) and his first long ball since July 9.

“I feel like I've seen the ball good,” Wood said postgame. “I mean, I’ve still been chasing a little bit more than I like, but I think that'll come too. So I’ve got to continue to just take good at-bats and swing at the right stuff.”

It set the tone for a game unlike many the Nats (46-70) have had recently. The club entered play Saturday 14-35 in day games, the league’s worst record in such contests, and were coming off of being on the wrong end of back-to-back shutouts.

Wood’s mini-offensive breakout was a long time coming. Beyond just his home run drought, the slugger entered Saturday's game just 4-for-57 on non-fastballs since the start of July. Connecting on a curveball from right-hander Carson Seymour in the sixth, Wood laced it 108.7 into the left-center-field gap for an RBI double to plate Daylen Lile and tack on an insurance run for the Nats.

“These guys have been fighting,” said interim manager Miguel Cairo. “They’re resilient. It’s been tough lately, but today they came together and they put up good at-bats and we pitched, played good defense. We did the little things to win a ballgame. It was a good team win.”

The Nationals received that true team effort they'd been seeking thanks to homers from Wood, Paul DeJong and Josh Bell and a gem from starter Brad Lord, who registered a quality start with six solid innings and one run allowed.

Before the game, Cairo said of Lord that, “you want 26 guys like that” on a roster, and the right-hander proved his mettle in his 10th start of the season (and 39th appearance overall, after a heavy load in the bullpen).

Lord was so dominant in his manager’s eyes that Cairo doubled down after the game, referring to the right-hander as “a bull out there, man.”

“He gave us six good innings, said Cairo, adding that Lord, “can do it in every role,” whether as a reliever or starter, roles he’s had throughout this season for the Nationals.

Lord kept the Giants’ bats at bay all afternoon with a four-pitch mix, limiting hard contact and escaping a bases-loaded jam in the third with a well-timed strikeout of Willy Adames. His only blemish was a Rafael Devers solo homer in the sixth before ending his afternoon with back-to-back strikeouts.

Lord cited the Adames strikeout as a key moment.

“Once you get through a situation like that, it kind of feels easier after that,” Lord said.

A pitching performance like that, paired with the trio of Nats’ homers, proved the recipe for a much-needed bounce-back win in the Bay Area. But it wasn’t without a little late-game tension.

Things grew dicey in the eighth, as the Giants loaded the bases with one out against reliever Cole Henry, with pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores at the plate representing the go-ahead run.

Jose A. Ferrer emerged from the bullpen and limited the damage to a Flores sac fly before striking out Matt Chapman to preserve the 4-2 lead.

Ferrer, the Nats’ de facto closer after trading Kyle Finnegan to the Tigers, escaped that eighth-inning jam and got into and out of his own in the ninth, retiring catcher Patrick Bailey on a 5-4-3 double play to seal the win for his first save of 2025.

“He’s another bull that we’ve got in there,” said Cairo of Ferrer.

For Ferrer, it was exciting, sure, and gave a sense of validation to have the club put its faith in him as closer -- but his eyes also opened wide when he recounted his initial fear as Bailey’s chopper bounded toward third baseman Brady House.

“I was kind of scared,” said Ferrer through interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “If you see my eyes when you see the replay, the ball was bouncing in different directions, and you can even see Brady just go back, side-to-side trying to follow the ball, but he was able to get the double play and close the gate and get the win.”

Scared or not, Ferrer sealed the deal, and the Nats found themselves on the good side of the win/loss column.