(West Palm Beach, FL)—Heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Washington Nationals were down 8-7. Washington Nationals prospect James Wood came to the rescue with a leadoff home run to left center, his fourth of spring Training, to tie things up for the Nationals.

The next batter, Alex Call, singled and stole second, allowing pitch-hitter Dylan Crews to single on a line drive to center and score Alex Call all the way from second.

Call it a walk-off spring training comeback from behind Curly W or whatever you want to; it was a good look for the two prospects the Nationals hope will be part of the long-term future.

The Nationals are now 15-10 during Spring Training, with only a couple of more games left before they head to Cincinnati to kick off the 2024 regular season.

After trailing for most of the second half of this afternoon’s game, the Nationals pulled off a win, even if it was just a spring training game. All good signs.

However, the afternoon wasn’t all rosy. RHP Trevor Willimas, looking to secure a spot in the pitching rotation, struggled and gave up five runs on eight hits over his five innings of work. Williams was only able to strike out four, raising his ERA to 7.20 this spring training. Williams has pitched a total of 15 innings and struck out 15, giving up 12 runs on 24 hits. Williams, who has a 4-4 record this spring training, is wondering if that would be enough to secure a spot for now in the Washington Nationals pitching rotation to kick off the 2024 season.

The Nationals got off to an early lead this afternoon, with Lane Thomas hitting his third home run to left, and then a four-run bottom of the third helped the Nationals jump out to a 5-0 lead. However, in the top of the fifth the Twins plated four runs and followed up with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to tie things up. It wasn’t until the top of the ninth that the Twins took the lead for the first time all game with a Yoyner Fajardo single on a line drive to right fielder James Wood, which was deflected by first baseman Juan Yepez and saw Seth Gray scoring from third.

In the bottom of the ninth, a James Wood home run and a single and an RBI single from Dylan Crews would give the Nationals a walk-off win.

“I just felt good, especially going the other way,” Crews said after the game this afternoon. “That’s something I’ve been trying to get back to. I wasn’t trying to force it over there, but that’s the part of the field I really want to stay at. … It definitely felt good seeing that go out.”

In other Washington Nationals news, Mark Zuckerman of MASN reported that Robert Hassell III, who suffered a minor groin strain two weeks ago, is looking to return “probably the first week or April,” according to Davey Martinez. “That’s good. Groins are kind of funny. We want to make sure he’s 100 percent.”

Tomorrow, the Washington Nationals (15-10) will be the “visiting” team against the Houston Astros. The Nationals will send Derek Law (2-0; 0.00 ERA), and the Nationals will face RHP Framber Valdez (0-0; 7.71). The first pitch will be at 6:05 p.m. EDT at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. Nationals fans can watch the game on MASN.

Over the weekend, the Nationals will play a split-squad game on Saturday. Jake Irvin will start the afternoon game against the Cardinals in Jupiter, and Josiah Gray will start the night game against the Marlins in West Palm Beach.

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