James Wood gave Nick Morabito a rude “welcome to the big leagues” moment on Wednesday night in the nation’s capital.
The Nationals slugger crushed a deep fly ball to left that not only popped out of the Mets rookie’s glove but ended up turning into a rare inside-the-park grand slam.
Mets starter Nolan McLean easily got the first two outs of the bottom of the second inning before allowing a double and single with a hit by pitch sandwiched in between.
Wood, who had 31 homers last year and 12 entering Wednesday’s ballgame, sent a high, arcing fly deep to left field that sent Morabito back to the fence.
At the top of his leap, Morabito, making his major league debut, saw the ball bounce off the heel of his glove and roll all the way to center field. Center fielder Tyrone Taylor didn’t appear to know where the ball was and stayed near Morabito, who was down on the warning track.
By the time Morabito got to his feet and went for the ball, Wood was inevitably going to score on a wild homer that went 379 feet but never left the confines of Nationals Park.
To add insult to injury, Morabito was plunked in his second plate appearance in the top of the third. But Morabito got a measure of redemption in the bottom half when he made a leaping catch reaching into the stands down the left field line on a Jorbit Vivas fly ball that turned into a sacrifice fly.
The outfield prospect had a .754 OPS with four homers and 14 steals in 41 games with Triple-A Syracuse this year.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
