Washington Nationals news & notes: Josiah Gray struggles again; Nats drop finale with Pirates, 7-4

Gray’s first home start:

“[My biggest takeaway is] You have a responsibility to go out there and try to put your team in a good position from Game 1,” Josiah Gray told reporters. Quoted by Jessica Camerato of MLB.comIn the opening game against the Nationals, he pitched four innings, allowing eight hits (including two home runs) and two walks, giving up seven runs, and ended up losing 8-2 to the Reds in Cincinnati.

“I couldn’t do that today.”

“Overall, today was his first start,” manager Davey Martinez said of Gray’s first start of the 2024 season.

“We were able to calm him down. We walked in two, which isn’t bad. One was a borderline call. But we have to put this behind us. .”

Martinez said he would like to see Gray take a more proactive approach going forward.

“He has to attack,” Martinez said. “He’s got to stay in attack mode. He’s got good stuff. So I’m not disrespecting him in any way. It’s just one day. I hope he gets stronger in the next game. I know I’ll be back. I’ve already told him, ‘Hey, let’s put this behind us, learn from it and move on.’

“It’s easy to see the damage, but kind of chalk it up as ‘that’s the way it is,'” the starter said.

“We can only do better next time.”

Before starting No. 2 in last night’s series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Martinez said Gray’s ability to move on from a bad start is one of the signs of maturity he’s seen from starts over the years.

“He’s definitely gotten a lot better, really a lot better,” Martinez said. “And as far as his maturity, it’s gotten much better. And I saw it in the first game as well. He came into the game and struggled for two innings, but the pitch count He knew the pitch was up, so he went into the game in the fourth inning and pitched really well that inning. And that’s because he put those innings behind him and got three outs here. Show me what you can try.

“So, after he came home from the game, I said, ‘Just build off of that last inning.’ That was really good. Figure out who you are.’ He just has to understand that he has to throw the slider. He can’t like the slider. The slider is a great pitch, don’t get me wrong, but the fastball is definitely going to help me and His fastball was really good. He needs to establish his fastball, attack the zone, stay in the zone and everything else will fall into place. I’m looking forward to seeing how he bounces back today. ”

But Gray once again struggled to throw strikes or retire batters early, as the first three batters got on base with a single, double, and walk, and a sac fly put the Pirates up 1-0 early. did.

A walk, two runs scored, and a sac fly made it 4-0 in the first inning, but the Nats’ starting pitcher had thrown 33 pitches by the end of the inning, resulting in a score of four. ¹⁄₃He pitched 96 pitches, allowed 7 hits, 3 walks, and 6 earned runs, losing 7-4 and earning an L.

Gray threw 58 of his 96 pitches for strikes, with 11 whiffs and 11 called strikes, but he found himself in an early hole that his club couldn’t get out of.

“He was missing. His direction is a little off,” Martinez said after the game.

“But in the first inning he got the first three batters ahead and couldn’t get rid of them. They hit pretty good pitches. Nothing really difficult. But that’s all. He allows one more run and then it settles down a little bit, but for me it’s 0-2 to 3-2. If he wants to pitch deep into the game, we’re going to throw him from three to three. We have to finish within four pitches. That’s the key.”

Martinez said all of the armside mistakes reporters noticed were a result of Gray opening up in his play.

“He’s just opening up. I’m watching his head open up. His direction. Everything follows your head. So your head opens up and starts flying. And then he goes one way and the ball leaks down his arm side. So we had to get his direction back and be more consistent.”

How difficult is that to fix?

“We’re going to work on it in the bullpen,” he said.

“A lot of times when things start to fall apart, they start to speed up. That’s when you have to take a deep breath, slow things down a little bit, and figure out what you need to do to get back on track.” there is.”

Robles Hammy:

Victor Robles took his first at-bat Wednesday night and issued his third walk in his fifth at-bat, then advanced from first to third base on a hit by CJ Abrams, but something happened as Robles rounded the bases. I subtracted.

Robles left the game at that point to pinch run, but Nats manager Davey Martinez told reporters after the game that it was a hamstring issue.

“Vic hurt his left hamster,” Martinez said.

“He’s scheduled for an MRI tomorrow, so we’ll know more tomorrow.”

Asked if the situation was serious enough for Robles to go on the IL, Martinez said he didn’t know, but the outfielder said he was “feeling pretty good.” That could be an issue in the Robles fight.

Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos (via Getty Images)

“Because that’s what he does,” Martinez said. So I’m going to look at the MRI results tomorrow and start from there. ”

Before last night’s game, the club called up Jacob Young and placed Robles on the 10-day IL.

“He hurt his left hamstring, so we put him on the IL. Jacob is here. So he’s going to be playing center for us today,” the captain said. Davey Martinez told reporters during Thursday’s pregame press conference.

He said the injury was especially unwelcome given that Robles missed 36 games last season due to a back injury.

“It smells like Vic,” Martinez said.

“I mean, he worked hard to get back. I hope we can get him back soon, but it’s going to take some time. He’s got to get his strength back there. We need to go through the execution process. It’s a shame because he worked hard to get back and was in a good position. He was playing well. He was exactly where he was supposed to be. He was finally beginning to understand many of the things we had discussed with him over the years. But this was not the end of everything. He would be back.

“And hopefully we can get the hamstring strong again and he can come back as a center player.”

Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports

“Obviously it’s sad, especially because I’ve put so much effort into keeping my body healthy,” Robles said. Quoted by Mark Zuckerman of MASN.

“But a lot of times it’s out of our control, out of our reach. All I can do is get as strong as possible, be ready and get back as soon as possible.”

Given Robles’ style of play, the club had no choice but to send Robles to the IL until he recovered, Martinez said.

“Especially with him, because his legs are so important to him. Even yesterday, when I saw him outside, he was grimacing a little bit, but he still said, ‘I think he can go.’ I did. And I said, “No, I don’t mean that.” Let’s see what’s going on and hope nothing happens. ‘But it turned out to be something, so we’ll give him some time and hopefully he’ll recover quickly and get back on the field. ”