Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats swept by Mets with 9-1 loss in finale; Josiah Gray rehab assignment…

Score first = pressure:

New York MetsComing off a disappointing 3-7 homestand, the Washington Nationals swept a three-game series against the Nationals in the nation’s capital this week, concluding with a 9-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon in the rain-delayed series finale.

Davey Martinez’s team got off to slow starts in each game, going 4-3 on trips to Atlanta and Cleveland before losing all three games at home.

“It’s been a tough series, right?” Martinez said late Wednesday.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Another strong opponent has come. [the Braves] “We have to be ready for tomorrow. We’ve lost all three games and it’s tough to play behind the plate. We’re trying to bounce back, but we’re not going to make it.”

“Today, anyway, we hit the ball hard and we just couldn’t do anything, Patrick. [Corbin]”I thought he pitched it. He had four pitches left. And he paid the price. But we’ve got to forget about this series and start coming back and playing strong, good baseball and trying to get an early lead.”

Corbin gave up two runs by the fifth inning, then gave up consecutive home runs in his first two at-bats in the sixth, a double and a one-out single before leaving the mound for a five-run loss. ¹⁄₃He threw 77 pitches, threw 51 strikes and pitched one inning, allowing seven hits, three home runs and six earned runs.

“The third time, maybe the pitch was a little bit higher,” Corbin said after the game. Quote from MASN’s Mark Zuckerman“We had a big lead today, but just a couple of balls down the stretch gave them the lead.”

The home team allowed just seven hits and one run off Luis Severino, who did not allow a walk and struck out four in eight innings.

Martinez said the team had good batters and some strong hits, but they just weren’t on top form tonight.

“Early on, I think we got five or six liner outs. We relied on the fastball,” he explained.

“We didn’t show anything. I don’t care about that at-bat. But we need to relax a little bit and get things going. We just need to relax. Once we get on base, all of a sudden. [trying] “To hit a home run. Just do what we planned, hit the ball into the gaps and score early.”

“We’ve got to keep fighting,” Martinez said of his team battling at the plate and trying to get strikes. “Like I said, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to keep working every day.”

“Every day is a different day,” he added. “That’s what I love about the game. We can come back tomorrow and do it again. The result might be different, but we’ve got to play hard.”

“Nobody’s gonna give us anything. They know that. They know that. I know they’re gonna keep battling, but we’re gonna come back tomorrow and try to score early.”

“The key is to try and put the other team under pressure from the get-go. If we can do that, good things will happen.”

Josiah Gray heads to Fredericksburg to begin rehab:

“JoJo will begin a rehab assignment and will be working his way back into the major leagues,” Nationals general manager and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo said Wednesday morning on 106.7 the FAN’s Audacy’s The Sports Junkies.

Hours later, manager Davey Martinez provided more details about the future of the 26-year-old starting pitcher, who has been on the disabled list since April with a right elbow/forearm flexor injury.

“He’ll go on a rehab assignment. It’s not yet clear where he’ll go,” Martinez said, though he acknowledged hopeful things will go well.

“Right now we want to send him to the closest affiliate because we want him to come back here after pitching,” Martinez said.

“So, I haven’t looked at the schedule, but if Fredericksburg is home, he’ll probably go there.”

Washington’s Single-A affiliate is scheduled to play at home this weekend, so Gray will likely begin his rehab assignment there.

After relying on bullpen time and actual game time to date, Gray now plans to test himself and his skill against other teams.

“He’s feeling good. The good news is he feels really healthy, so that’s great. We’re going to start him up, we’re going to ramp him up, hopefully he’ll make his first pitch on Sunday and then we’ll put him in the five-day rotation and see what happens,” Martinez told reporters.

The Nationals expect Gray to pitch four innings in the first innings, or about 50-60 pitches, and the team will be closely monitoring Gray’s performance on the mound.

The Nationals coaching staff and Gray have juggled things a bit between his time on the injured list and his return, so his manager will want to see how he is.

“His movement has gotten a little cleaner,” Martinez said.

“He’s got a little bit of strength in his legs. He looked good yesterday. The ball was coming easy to him yesterday. His speed was 92-93.” [MPH].

Photo by Chris Bernacchi/Diamond Images via Getty Images

“But it’s been a lot easier. His direction is a lot better. We’ve worked on that a lot while he’s been here, so hopefully he’ll carry that into the game.”

If things go well, Gray will continue to develop and be back on a major league mound sometime soon.

“We made sure everything was right and we did our due diligence with him and, like I said, this is his first rehab outing,” Martinez emphasized. “If something goes wrong, we can figure something out and do something different, but hopefully going forward everything will go well and he can continue to improve himself.” [up] Then he comes back here and helps us win games.”