Washington Nationals news & notes: Big 7-run 4th lifts Nats, 8-5, for 3 of 4 from Braves in D.C.

“I threw the first pitch well,” 23-year-old left-hander DJ Hurts of New York said. Mets “And then keep moving on,” he said in his MLB debut.

Hurts allowed seven hits, two walks and four earned runs, but two of the runs came on a home run in the fourth inning and the other two came in the fifth inning when he scored on home plate after Hurts was removed with a runner on second and no outs.

“It was awesome,” Hurts said of his major league debut. “The adrenaline was pumping and everybody was so welcoming. It was a great first day. I’m tired now, but it was a great day.”

“He was a little nervous,” manager Davey Martinez said after the Nationals’ 6-3 loss to their NL East rival.

“He was calm in the big moments, threw strikes and looked really good.”

What was the manager’s message to starter Hertz?

“I told him, ‘Well done,’ he really did well, so let’s focus on the positives.”

“This is a big step forward for this kid,” said GM and director of baseball operations. Mike Rizzo told The Sports Junkies of Audacy. The morning after Hearts’ debut.

“Since we got him, he’s developed pretty fast and earned it.

“He’s a good player, he’s a young 23-year-old high school draft pick. [2019, 8th Round]In other words, he’s only just scratching the surface.

“The fact that he was able to gain experience against a veteran Mets lineup and hold his own was great. He learned that he has to fight in the strike zone.”

“When he does that, he can dominate the game. Strike throwing is a big part of his arsenal and when he controls the ball he can achieve big things.”

“I think this is a big step forward for him and for his development.”

Hurts struck out batters 15 times, 10 of which came on his fastball (57%), averaging 93.7 mph and topping out at 95.6 mph, and 9 times on his four-seam fastball (16%), mixed in with his changeup (25%) and slider (1%).

“He has a good pitch, a fastball with a lot of movement, good curveballs and a devastating changeup,” Rizzo said.

“Add above-average control to those three pitches and you have a really good left-handed starting pitcher.”

Martinez said he’s interested in seeing Hurts perform in his second start without the nerves he felt in his MLB debut.

“I think he’ll be a little more relaxed,” Martinez said. “Again, he’s facing some tough teams, so attacking the strike zone is important. I know he’s had that discussion with the team. [Pitching Strategist Sean] Doolittle, [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey and the other pitchers are trying to do what they can and use all of their pitches well. His changeup is really good, but his fastball control is crisp and, as I said, I want it to be in the zone. I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch again. Like I said, he should be a little less nervous today.”

Oppose Atlanta Braves Hurts, making his second major league start, waited about 35 minutes before taking the mound and got three consecutive outs in the first inning, but ran into trouble in the second inning.

Hurts walked Adam Duvall with one out, advanced Duvall to second on a wild pitch, advanced a runner to third on a single by Travis d’Arnaud, and then Michael Harris II hit an RBI single to make the Braves up 1-0. A walk to Orlando Arcia and another wild pitch brought in the second run, and then in a tough at-bat against Jarred Kelenic, Hurts’ lack of control on an inside pitch angered the outfielder (rightly?), but he struck out Kelenic and got Ozzie Albies out to end the 33-pitch inning.

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

He avoided a two-out situation in the third inning and got three consecutive outs in the fourth, but with seven runs in the bottom of the fourth leading to a 7-2 lead, he gave up a single to leadoff batter Kelenic and walked Austin Riley with one out on his 87th and final pitch.

This time around, he recorded 13 whiffs and 14 strikeouts overall, including 7 whiffs of 13 and 8 strikeouts of 14 with his four-seam fastball.

After some trouble in the second innings, getting out on eight of nine hits was a good way for him to get through a tough frame, but then he got out on two of three hits in the fifth innings.

“I needed a reset. When I was talking to Doolittle, I thought to myself: ‘This happened. Let’s forget it.'” Hertz spoke about his resilience in the game. The Nationals won the game 8-5, giving them three wins in four straight games against the Braves this season.

Hertz struggled but continued to take it ball by ball and finished strong.

“Move on and go there again. They’re going to score, and certainly that happened.”

The home team’s seven-run fourth inning began with a one-out single by Lane Thomas, a walk by Jesse Winker, an RBI single by Luis Garcia with two outs, a three-run homer by Keibert Lewis, who hit the first pitch from debuting right-hander Herston Waldrep inside to right field, a walk by Nick Senzel, a single by Joey Gallo and a bases-loaded walk by Jacob Young followed by a bases-clearing double by C.J. Abrams.

Abrams hit a first-pitch sinker from relief pitcher Aaron Bummer into right field to make it 7-2.

“The best thing was he walked and then got a big hit,” Martinez said in the post-game press conference.

“At first I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re just going to go out there and swing by.’

“Then we started picking up walks and good things started happening. We always say, ‘the little things help win games,’ and part of the little things on offense is picking up walks. And we did that today. And we had some big innings. Keibert hit a big home run and CJ hit a double with the bases loaded.

“If I can continue to do that, I think I’ll be able to score some runs. When I get the ball in the zone, I’m able to hit it pretty hard, so I definitely had a good at-bat today.”

“It’s OK to be aggressive,” Martinez said of his team’s approach at another point after the game. “We talk about it all the time, but you’ve got to put the ball in the zone. You can’t just swing at everything. We’ve talked about it a lot in the dugout, and when they finally did it, the results were a lot better. We started seeing pitches, we started putting the ball in the zone, the pitcher started to get late, and we got a good ball to hit. Kavert swung at the first pitch, and the ball was in the zone, right where he wanted it, so we’ve got to hit it that way.”

The manager said Lewis could have also helped Hertz get through some difficult times.

“I thought Keivert did a really good job on him, I really do. He started to mix up his pitches and get guys back in the zone.”

“He was pretty bad for a while and we were like, ‘Oh, no!’ But Keivert pulled him back and calmed him down a little bit and got a big out for us.”

“The first innings, [Herz] He pitched pretty well in the second inning. He seemed a little shaky, but he was able to stay in the game. That’s what I like about him. He came back and pitched the four-plus innings that we needed and kept us in the game. He pitched a little bit more. I came in and I could tell he was a little tired, but he pitched well. He pitched well. I’m proud of him, because in a situation like this, with a good team like this, he stayed in the game, threw strikes when he needed to, got out of a big jam, and stayed in the game after that.”