James Wood is special.<\/p>\n
Washington Nationals<\/a> fans know that. More and more baseball fans are learning that, too.<\/p>\n And in this impressive record Wood already holds and is expanding on, that’s proven even more.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Wood notched his sixth career batted ball of at least 116 miles per hour.<\/p>\n There have been six total batted balls of that exit velocity by every other Nationals player since Statcast began recording this data in 2015, according to MLB Network’s Sarah Langs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bryce Harper and Juan Soto each had two of them in a Nats uniform.<\/p>\n Kyle Schwarber and Adam Lind each had one of those for the Nationals.<\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0Yankees outfielder once battled ostrich in 11-plate spaghetti-eating contest<\/a><\/p>\n While Soto and Harper weren’t in D.C. forever, this is only Wood’s third year in the bigs, and the start of his second full season. He simply hits the ball hard with incredible frequency.<\/p>\n He didn’t homer on Wednesday, but he had done so in the three games prior — including a laser home run to dead central on Monday that seemed to barely leave the ground but simply didn’t drop until it was beyond the fence.<\/p>\n Here’s the hard-hit single on Wednesday that expanded this record:<\/p>\n James Wood’s 1st inning single was hit 116.0 MPH, the hardest hit ball of the season by Wood. Where it ranks in MLB this season:<\/p>\n Ketel Marte – 116.9 (Out) \u2014 Nationals Communications (@NationalsComms) April 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Wood doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, so he should get the chance to keep building on this mark as he goes forward with the Nationals.<\/p>\n More MLB news:<\/p>\n
Junior Caminero – 116.9 (Single)
Giancarlo Stanton – 116.3 (Single)
Jac Caglianone – 116.1 (Single)
James Wood – 116.0\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/IQS8xiTWAv<\/a><\/p>\n