Hard hitting in the Windy City

Once he made his way into the lineup, Josh Willingham began to tear the cover off of the ball. This season, he is projected to hit a career-high 28 home runs and finish the season batting over .300 for the second time in his career. With another two-home run game last night in a 15-6 romp over the Chicago Cubs, Willingham now has five two-home run games this season, including the July 27th game where he hit two grand slams. All of those games occurred on the road, where Willingham has shined this season.  Here is a look at The Hammer’s home vs. away production:

Willingham ranks 8th in the National League in terms of percent of flyballs that are home runs (HR/FB) with 20.6 (min. 370 PA). But if you look at Willingham’s home/road splits, Willingham has hit 32.0% of flyballs for home runs on the road versus only 9.6% at home. 

The Nats have 34 games remaining in the season, including tonight’s game at Chicago. Of those, 19 are on the road, which will give Willingham a great shot at reaching some career highs.

Elias Sports Bureau had this to say about Willingham’s night last night:
Josh Willingham went 4-for-4, scoring five runs and driving in six in the Nationals’ 15-6 win at Wrigley Field. During the live-ball era, only five other players went 4-for-4 or better in one game, but had more runs and more RBIs than they had hits: Sean Casey (1999), Ken Griffey Jr. (1996), George Foster (1977), Rocky Colavito (1959) and Lou Gehrig (1928).

Also, Notes from NatsTown would like to congratulate Elijah Dukes on his first career grand slam, which he hit in the 5th inning last night and helped the Nationals increase their lead to 9-1. Along with the grand slam, Dukes went 2-3 with two walks to break out of a 1-for-20 slump.

Tune in tonight at 8 p.m. as the Nationals go for a second straight win against the Cubs.