Ex-Padres prospect James Wood haunts former team in Nats’ win

James Wood homered and drove in four runs Monday night as the visiting Washington Nationals topped the San Diego Padres 10-6.
Wood clinched Washington’s first win over San Diego since June 2023 with a towering three-run homer off the right field foul pole in the top of the eighth to make it 9-3. It was the 22nd homer for Wood, a former Padre prospect who the Nationals acquired three years ago in an eight-player trade that sent Juan Soto the other way.
Mitchell Parker (5-8) got the win, allowing six hits and three runs in six-plus innings with two walks and a strikeout. It was just the third win in 16 games for Washington and just its second road win in June.
Stephen Kolek (3-3) absorbed the loss, permitting five hits and five runs (four earned) over 4 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Kolek sailed through the first three innings, allowing just a leadoff walk in the third and striking out four. But the game turned negatively for him after he committed a two-base throwing error on CJ Abrams’ slow comebacker to start the fourth.
Wood followed with a one-hop single off the left field wall, kicking off a four-run rally. Nathaniel Lowe added an RBI single, followed by Josh Bell’s sacrifice fly to deep center and a run-scoring single from Brady House.
Manny Machado got San Diego on the board in its half of the fourth with a solo homer to center, his 13th of the season. But the Nationals made it 6-1 in the fifth via Luis Garcia’s RBI single off reliever Wandy Peralta and Bell’s run-producing single.
The Padres got a run in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Gavin Sheets, then closed within 6-3 in the seventh on Jake Cronenworth’s leadoff homer to right-center, his sixth of the year.
Bell added a solo homer to the second deck in left, his 10th, in the Washington ninth. Fernando Tatis Jr. launched a three-run blast to left-center in the San Diego ninth to cap the scoring.