James Wood hits 10th leadoff homer of 2026, setting new Nats single-season record

James Wood didn’t even need the second half to set two Nationals franchise records!

Wood hit his 10^th leadoff home run of 2026 on Sunday, putting him alone atop the franchise leaderboard for leadoff homers in a single season in just the team’s 97^th game of the year. The previous franchise record was nine, shared by Brad Wilkerson of the 2004 Expos and Alfonso Soriano of the 2006 Nats.

Wood’s dinger was also his 28^th of the season, which set a new record for homers before the All-Star break; Soriano had the previous mark with 27, but that was in 89 games versus 97.

This also marked the second straight game Wood hit a leadoff homer, and it was his third homer of the series, this one a 434-foot blast to right center off Yankees righty Will Warren.

Wood, with two franchise records in tow, now has a strong chance to both set another franchise record and perhaps break another MLB single-season record as well.

Sunday’s was Wood’s 13^th career leadoff homer, breaking a tie with CJ Abrams for the second-most in the Nationals era (2005-present), and he is now just one behind Trea Turner, who holds the franchise high right now with 14.

Wood also has a great chance to tie or break the MLB record for leadoff homers in a season, which was set by Kyle Schwarber in 2024 with 15.