When the Nationals came to bat in the bottom of the second on May 19, 2026, the Mets had already scored five runs off Foster Griffin. Quickly, however, the bottom of their lineup had loaded the bases when James Wood came up again. He had singled of Mets starter Nolan McLean in the first.
Mets left fielder Nick Morabito, a native of nearby McLean, Va., made his MLB debut before hometown family and friends. He came close to making an excellent catch at the left-center field wall on Wood’s high drive. But the ball ticked off Morabito’s glove as he crashed into the screening and caromed away over the head of center fielder Tyrone Taylor. Rounding first base, Wood had a clear view of what had happened.
“When I saw that, I kind of knew it was just a full-on sprint home,” Wood said after the game. “That’s probably why my eyes got big there.” The 6-foot-6 slugger’s long strides carried him around the bases in 15.15 seconds – at super-fast 29.4 feet per second, sliding home with a head-first swipe tag as the relay throw was up the line.
“One swing of the bat cuts the game from 5-0 to 5-4 just like that that early in the game,” Nats’ manager Blake Butera told reporters. “It’s probably the biggest smile I’ve seen on his face since I’ve gotten to know him. I don’t think he could believe what just happened.”
Wood’s grand slam, his 13th homer of the season and his first-ever inside-the-park, also was his first big-league grand slam. Thanks to some more timely hitting and some sloppy fielding by the Mets, the Nationals went on to a 9-6 victory. Griffin figured it out after the second and shut down the Mets through the fifth. He got the win.
This was the second time in the season that Wood rudely greeted somebody making his MLB debut. On April 23, JR Ritchie started for the Braves at Nationals Park. In the bottom of the first, Nats lead-off hitter James Wood sent Ritchie’s second pitch, a 93-mph fastball, over the right-field fence. Ritchie settled down after that and the Braves won, 7-2. The only other Nats’ run was a homer by CJ Abrams in the fourth.
The Nationals actually had another inside-the-park grand slam. On Sept. 8, 2017, at home against the Phillies, Michael A. Taylor’s hard liner over the center fielder’s head rolled to the wall as the speedy Taylor scored on a close play at the plate.
It was payback for Taylor and the Nats. Two seasons earlier, Sept. 25, 2015, the Phils’ Aaron Altherr had hit an inside-the-park grand slam at Nationals Park. On that one, Taylor, the Nats’ center field, failed to make a diving shoe-string catch of Altherr’s sinking line. That ball also rolled to wall. Altherr made it home without a throw.
Wood’s base-loaded, inside-the-park, slam was the first in the majors since the 2022 season.
