Washington Nationals news & notes: Keibert Ruiz still building; GM Mike Rizzo on 1-0 every day; + more…

Keibert Lewis is still under construction:

Enter the second of two baltimore orioles Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Keibert Lewis went 3-for-40 (.075/.119/.150) with one home run, one walk and six Ks in 10 games and 42 at-bats since returning from a long stint on the IL.

Lewis, 25, dealt with a severe bout of the flu and, he told reporters, ended up losing 18 to 20 pounds. He continued to rehabilitate as his illness progressed, but returned to the majors after two games of rehabilitation.

“He played in two games and it was good to have him back,” Davey Martinez said on the day Ruiz returned.

“He’s back around the boys. I saw him earlier today and I’m looking forward to having him back.”

“We will keep an eye on him,” the coach added. “He’s been pretty sick, and like I said, he’s lost a lot of weight, so we’re going to keep an eye on him.”

On Wednesday afternoon after 10 games, Martinez spoke about Ruiz’s struggles at the plate since coming off the IL, and why they decided to keep sending the catcher out to get him back to where they want him to be. He talked about what he had planned.

“When you’re sick like that and you take 15 days off, your timing is thrown off,” the manager explained. “And like I said, he lost a lot of weight. He’s working really hard to come back. The only way he’s going to get his timing is to go out and play. He has to play. So the one good thing about that is he wants to contribute, but he really does his best to accept it. We want to do well, but we know what kind of situation we’re in. And we had a conversation with him saying, “Oh, it’s going to come.” Please don’t force it. Get ready. Please prepare your timing. ‘But he’s doing a better job of catching, which is great, but we need some time to get him going.’ ”

The good news is, Lewis is healthy and still working his way back to full strength.

Photo by G. Fiume/Getty Images

“He’s doing well in that regard,” Martinez said.

“I ask him every day and he says his body feels good. He’s going to get there. Yesterday, he hit the ball hard. It takes a little while for him to get his timing right. It will take a while.”

On the other hand, as coach Martinez said, Luis is doing well defensively.

“He’s doing well. As you can see, he’s still blocking the ball and calling good games. So he’s definitely doing well.

“As I said, I know it’s a little frustrating for him because he wanted to get off to a good start.

“But if you’re that sick and you miss that much time, it’s going to take him a minute.”

Lewis singled in each of the first two PAs in Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Orioles at Nationals Park, going 2-for-5 overall.

Daily 1-0 = Way of life:

With Tuesday’s win, Washington briefly moved above .500 (18-17; Now 18-18 after Wednesday night’s loss.) But in a brief moment of brilliance, the Nationals were above .500 for the first time since July of 2021.

Did Davey Martinez have any thoughts about the club finally being game over?

“Did you do that?” he asked. “I didn’t know either. I take it one game at a time, buddy. I don’t look at the records. I just worry about going 1-0, I really do. That’s fine though. Like. .

“Look, we’re playing well. We’ve got a long way to go, so we’ve got to keep playing the way we’ve been playing. We’re pitching really well. We’re playing good defense. The base running is good. And we’re starting to hit the ball.”

But seriously, did he really not know the club was over .500? “Part since ’21” may have been a fun media-driven story, but he was definitely aware of the team’s record…right?

Mike Rizzo, D.C.’s general manager and director of baseball operations, was asked that question. In your weekly visit with Audacy Sports Junkie on 106.7 the FAN Wednesday morning.

Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images

“I think he probably knows near where we are,” Rizzo said.

“At this time of year you don’t know the standings or anything like that, so it doesn’t really mean much, but I think tonight we’re focused on playing a good game and getting ready to go 1-0.”

“I believe in that. We look back and see we were at .500 and then we were able to get over .500 because it felt good to be there.”

“It’s always good to play productive, clean baseball like we did last night,” he added. “A record is a record, but it’s always good to beat a good team and compete with the best teams. Last night was a fun game, and I think we’ll have a good game tonight.”

Although his decision was correct, the Nats lost the game and fell to a .500 batting average.

More about Sports Junkie by RIZZO:

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Quick Mitchell Parker bit:

A long night of late-game theater in the nation’s capital on Wednesday left Mitchell Parker’s starting pitcher against the O’s a little lost in the shuffle, with the left-handed pitcher giving up two runs on two solo homers for 73 RBIs. did. He started pitching 55 strikes and lost 7-6.

This home run was the first two home runs allowed in the majors after Parker started his first four games and kept the ball in the yard, but it was no surprise to see two of them go over the fence. He said there wasn’t.

“They’re known for hitting the ball out of the ballpark, but I thought he pitched really well. He really did,” Martinez told reporters.

“What’s wrong again, 5? ²⁄₃, 77 pitches, that’s a pretty good pitch. ”

Parker is throwing fewer curveballs than he did in his last start (12%, compared to his previous major league average of 26.8%) and relying a little more on his slider (16%, up from 5.8%). . The coach said he didn’t have a feel for the slider, so he used what worked for him.

“Well, he didn’t have much control over his curveball, so he used his slider a little bit more. He got two strikeouts with it and left two strikeouts out of the at-bat. Those two home runs should have been. It wasn’t great, but I felt more comfortable throwing the slider today.”

The 2020 fifth-round pick has a 2.67 ERA, 3.05 FIP, 1.67 BB/9, 7.33 K/9 and a .240/.271/.340 line over 27 IP over five starts. are doing.

Before making his fifth start Wednesday night, general manager Mike Rizzo spoke with 106.7 the FAN on D.C.’s Sports Junkies Wednesday morning about what Parker has been doing since arriving in the majors.

“Parker was an interesting test case for us,” Rizzo explained. “We’ve done a lot of development work with him. When we drafted him, this guy was a hard-throwing pitcher coming out of junior college, with nine at-bats and 16 strikeouts and nine at-bats and eight walks in junior college. And he was really honing his pitches and pitching calmly, and now he’s getting more strikes.

“He has a really good breaking ball and a 92-94 mph fastball. [Minor League Pitching Coordinator] with Sammy Naron [Pitching Coach Jim] What Hickey and our pitching staff did with him was that they really refined and developed his third pitch, which is a changeup or a split, a nasty pitch that you can really use with any grip. That means I did it. And also, if our pitcher attacks the strike zone, is aggressive with batters, and mixes pitches in the strike zone, he has a good chance to win. ”

[ed. note – “To be fair to Parker, and acknowledging Rizzo was speaking extemporaneously about stats from Parker’s JUCO days, the southpaw did strike out 15.52 per 9 in 2019 at San Jacinto, and 18.98 K/9 in 2020), but he only walked 6.30 per 9 in ‘19, and 5.34 BB/9 in ‘20, for an average of 5.99 BB/9, slightly less than “eight per nine” … and so far in the majors, it has been 1.67 BB/9).”]