Martinez’s Young Nationals:
Luis Garcia was in the middle of a petit slump before taking two days off in a row over the weekend in the series against the Tigers, taking three days off including Monday’s off, manager Davey Martinez said. We met before the final game against Detroit at Nationals Park. On keeping the 22-year-old infielder sharp and focused as the season progresses.
“I had a conversation with him,” Martinez explained. “It’s kind of a reset for him. Like I said yesterday, he’s playing well. I hope he continues to play well. I’m sure he’s not. I just want to—he wears down a lot when he’s not hitting, so I gave him a little break to reset, tomorrow he’ll be off as planned, but he’ll be back on Tuesday will come.”
Garcia has had 2-for-17 (.125/.177/.125) in his last four games, walking 1-in-17 and 6Ks, so it’s best for the Nats captain to take a few days of strategic rest. decided that it was a policy. And on Sunday, shortstop CJ Abrams and catcher Keibert Lewis, two other pillars of a franchise reboot among position players, also sat down.
Brad Mills – USA TODAY Sports
The sixth-year captain said at his pre-match press conference on Sunday morning that the young players are looking to give them the experience they need now as the club continues to build its next competitive squad. I was asked about the balance with the players.
“They have plenty of experience,” he said. “If you think about it, they haven’t played 162 games a year in the minor leagues. They played 140 games. So give them a few days off and give them a few days to reset. It was definitely the day I wanted Abrams and Lewis to have a day because they have two days in the middle and they’ll be back on Tuesday.It’s tough playing this game for 162 days.So I We have to find a way to get them back on their feet.”
Lewis, too, had a rough few weeks at bat, posting 3 doubles, 2 homers, 3 walks, 6Ks in 66 PAs, and 10-for-60 (.167/.227/.317). 281 batting average. He fell from /.354/.393 to .235/.303/.362 p.a.
Martinez said the difficult task when talking to catchers is convincing the 24-year-old switch-hitting backstop to keep doing what he’s been doing at bat, even if it’s not producing results right now.
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Brad Mills – USA TODAY Sports
“He’s still under 30% hitting, which is really good,” Martinez said. [ed. note – “It is now actually at 32.3%, according to Baseball Savant.”] “Now you have to get him to think about getting the ball up. He’s a much better hitter when the ball is up. [in the zone]. All low balls tend to hit the ground, so we’re trying to get him to ball a little higher. So he has to start looking up. That’s the next step. When the ball goes up, he hits it really hard. So we had to get him to consistently point the ball up and stop chasing the ball down. And the other is the technique of hitting with the players on the base. By understanding what he needs to do and what the pitcher is going to do, sometimes he may need to work a better count to get the pitch he wants. But he shouldn’t go up there right away. I know you want to be aggressive, but don’t jump right in and say, “I’m going to swing the first pitch and hit a run.” . No, just be patient, wait for a good pitch, and when that pitch comes, try to make your best swing. And that was something we had to work with, not just with him, but with all the young players. Because they want to get up there and be overly aggressive with the players on base. And sometimes the first ball is not always the best ball, and it may be the second ball. But be ready to hit, know who you are and what you’re hitting hard so you can hit a good pitch.
“But I think his plate was good. As I’ve said before, I watch his swing, and he had a lot of lineouts, but there’s nothing to show about that.” There was no.”
But all you can do is get the pitch you want, put it up the barrel and see where it drops. If you’re doing everything right, it should eventually.
“It’s hard to tell kids, ‘Don’t change anything,'” Martinez said. It doesn’t always happen that way. ”
It’s also important to swing the right pitch in the zone and know which ones suit you as a hitter, which he and his staff have emphasized for all of the Knotts’ hitters, including Lewis. That’s right.
“We are now trying to make him understand what he is really good at, which is getting the ball in the zone,” said the manager.
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Brad Mills – USA TODAY Sports
What about Abrams? In his last five games, he had 2-for-18 (.111/.111/.222), two doubles, eight kicks, and had 18 PAs before the Sunday afternoon break. Martinez said he’s his overall favorite shortstop so far in 2023.
“He’s playing really well, really, and when he starts early he’s another player. His contact percentage was pretty good. He’s starting to hit the ball hard, he’s starting to drive the ball. But we need him to swing on strikes.But he did really well and defended really well.He works hard and gets ground balls every day. [Infield and Third Base Coach Gary DiSarcina] and [Run Prevention Coordinator] Ricky [Gutierrez], and the good thing is that he wants to be better. That’s amazing. But these guys did a really good job. From where we were last year to where we are now, they’re competing every day and it’s actually fun to watch them, it’s really fun. So they bring energy every day. It would be pretty interesting if there was a mic in the dugout during the game. ”
Riley Adams claims:
Riley Adams, who went 4-for-4 in a game that was three short of the cycle with one hit on Sunday, is heading into the series finale against the Tigers at Nationals Park. It could have been comparable to the season’s overall results. Adams, 26, managed to back up “every day” with 29 PAs, with 5-for-26 (.192/.250/.346), a double, one home run, two walks and 10 strikeouts in seven games. . Behind Washington’s at-bat is Keibert Lewis.
Adams hit his first changeup off lefty Joey Wentz to 381-foot left-center, hitting his second home run of 2023, then singled to center in his next at-bat, and hit left field in his third and fourth at-bats. He hit a line drive double. .
“I was getting back to my comfort zone without expanding the zone.” Adams told MLB.com’s Jessica Camerart. In the postgame scrum, he said, “We got the pitch in the zone and got aggressive.
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Brad Mills – USA TODAY Sports
“My goal was to try to be a little more aggressive and try to strike, and I think I achieved that today, so that was the best thing.”
“when [he’s] He’s aggressive, he swings on strikes, he hits,” Davey Martinez said after the catcher’s big game. “He has a lot of power, we know that, but it allows him to swing before two strikes. Put the ball in the zone and let go and see what happens. ”
“Today was a perfect example of what he can do when he does it.”
Adams has played in just eight of the club’s 47 games so far, but the manager has spoken out this week about making his backup players more active and keeping the 23-year-old Lewis under close watch.
“We definitely have to protect [Ruiz’s] We have the workload in mind,” Martinez admitted.
“He understands. There’s a guy here who wants to catch every day. He never wants to rest.”
“He hates taking time off, but we had to be smart and make him understand, ‘You need time off.’ It’s hard to catch 162 games. ”