PHOENIX -- There is an outlook often emphasized on the Nationals: Once Josh Bell gets on a hot streak, he could carry the team.
Bell believes in it. Manager Dave Martinez believes in it. The work and dedication to achieve it were there; the results just weren’t translating at the plate.
Then came a trip out West to Seattle and Phoenix.
Bell has homered in three consecutive games, including a blazing 430-foot rocket in Friday’s 9-7 win over the D-backs at Chase Field.
"You can’t help but root for Josh Bell, right?” Martinez said this week. “The guys love him, we love him.”
After arriving in Seattle with a frustrating .151 batting average, Bell is batting .500 (7-for-14) with seven RBIs since Wednesday (two games against the Mariners, one against the D-backs).
"I feel good,” Bell, 32, said on Thursday. “I was in a dark place there for a few weeks, but that's the game. I had a good, long conversation with [hitting coach] Darnell [Coles] like a week-and-a-half ago. He kind of sat me down and said, ‘Stop moving your head too much. Get back to who you are. Put as many balls in play as possible and let the power take care of itself.’ And I finally feel like I'm back to who I am.”
This offseason, Bell -- a career 50.1 percent ground-ball hitter entering play Friday -- wanted to elevate the ball more. His adjustments included the posture in his stance. He didn’t achieve the desired success.
"Obviously, you work your tail off and you want to see results,” Bell said of his offseason training. “But at a certain point, the game is a good teacher. It let me know that what I was doing was not going to work. It stinks that it took me 100 at-bats for me to realize it. But it's a learning opportunity, and I'll be thankful for it at the end of the year.”
Bell smashed the Nationals’ two hardest-hit balls of the game on Friday. The exit velocity on his third-inning home run off Merrill Kelly was the exact same as his ninth-inning line-drive single off Jeff Brigham: 110 mph.
"It was loud and it was far,” Martinez said of Bell’s homer. “He’s swinging the bat really well. He’s not giving up any at-bats right now. Even that last at-bat, he smoked to right field.”
Bell matched the second-longest home run streak of his 10-year career. His three-game stretch is tied with Lane Thomas and Nick Senzel for the longest by a Nationals player in the last two years.
"He’s really staying behind the baseball,” said Martinez. “He’s trying to stay on top of the ball, not trying to lift the ball. And when he does that, he hits the ball hard.”
Bell also is no stranger to Chase Field. He played 41 games for the D-backs last season and channeled his knowledge of the ballpark.
“I know that if you can get the ball in the air here, you will get rewarded,” Bell said. “... It’s a lot different than Seattle. I know we had a couple close balls not go [out] there. Just get the ball in the air and let the atmosphere take care of it.”
The Nationals are undefeated during Bell’s recent homer streak and winners of seven out of their last 10 contests overall.
"It feels like the game is slowing down a little bit,” Bell said. “I’m swinging at better pitches, and the mistakes that I should hit, I’m hitting -- and well. The first month of baseball, I was getting pitches in my zone and I would just miss hitting them. So it’s nice to see the change.”