Front page – Kuhl, Kuhl, Kuhl:
Shortly after 2020 first-round pick Cade Cavalli suffered a season-ending elbow injury last month, Nationals skipper Davey Martinez said the club would move veteran right-hander Chad Cool to fifth in Washington, D.C.’s rotation. announced that it will be adopted as the second member.
“Chad Cool is about to get his chance now.” As quoted by MASNsports.com, Martinez said:added that the club believed it had enough depth in-house to cover Cavalli’s losses during the season.
“I feel really comfortable with the people we have now,” he explained.
The 30-year-old six-year veteran posted a 5.72 ERA, 5.26 FIP, 58 walks, 110 Ks and a .284/.355/.500 line in 27 starts and 137 innings pitched. Last season in the Colorado Rockies, 64 and one-third of them were at Coors Field (He put up a 5.04 ERA, while his 6.32 ERA was loaded with 72 2⁄3 IPs).
“His curveball is better now because he’s not in Colorado,” Martinez said via MASN.
“It’s going to help him. He’s really working on the changeup. He’s thrown some really good stuff. And he’s got a mix that can throw two seamers and four seamers.” He uses both and so far it’s been pretty effective.”
Coming into their regular season debut with the Nationals, on five pitches by three hitters, Cool and the Nats trailed 1–0, with back-to-back singles and RBI doubles to bring the first three Rays to the plate. An RBI and a sack fly followed, making the game 3-0 in favor of the Rays on 12 pitches.
Cool took the mound in the top of the second inning and retired the first two batters he faced in a 3-2 game, but a 1-2 slider to Jose Siri ended almost midfield and Siri hit. rice field. into left center field for a solo shot and a 4-2 raise lead.
It was a 4-4 game when Cool returned to the mound in the third, retiring Rays hitters in order, and in the 1-2-3 fourth round, he retired up to seven in a row, and the previous one. 12 out of 13 were set downs.
His retired batting streak ended at 8 on the Rays’ fifth one-out walk, but by then the Nationals were 5-4. .
Chad Cool quotes: 5.0 IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 4Ks, 1HR, 81P, 51S, 3/6GO/FO.
According to Baseball Savant, Cool mixes five pitches to throw 38% slider, 20% sinker, 19% knuckle curve, 12% changeup, 11% four-seam fastball, and 11 I threw a swing and 14 call strikes into the night. His slider swings and misses, and he struck 8 of 14 calls as well.
“He fought back and kept us in the ball game, which was great,” his manager said after losing 10-6. He started pitching and kept us in the game, so I thought he did well.”
point:
Alex Cole went down for a 0-1 changeup from Rays starter Josh Fleming and lined up in left field for a two-out, two-run single that scored Joey Meneses.who walked with one out), and Jaymer Candelario, (who chose the way), 3-2 Tampa.
An hour and a half later, it was a 4-2 raise, but Victor Robles (Leadoff single to right) and CJ Abrams (double to the left) Lane Thomas lined up the first pitch changeup in left field, 2-run double (Second double of the season), tied things at 4-4.
Robles (lead off single), Abrams (liner on the right), and Thomas (single to center), combined to put the Nationals ahead, knocking out the Rays starter and starting the fourth 5-4 Nationals home half with three straight singles when Robles scored on a hit by Thomas.
Bullpen action:
Erasmo Ramirez and Carl Edwards Jr. followed Chad Cool on the mound with scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh respectively, with the home side adding to their lead with Alex Cole (3-3, BB to that point). ). He singled to start the home half of the inning and scored on Luis Garcia’s pinch-hit double, 6–4.
Hunter Harvey gave up a one-out walk to Yandi Diaz to lose a seven-pitch battle to Randy Arrozarena. The Rays have 8 RBIs and 2 RBIs, 6 wins and 5 losses.
Kyle Finnegan got the ball and a save opportunity in the ninth inning, but the first pitch he threw was a middle sinker hit by Luke Reilly to homer the game to tie the game at 6–6. And the Rays took the lead three pitches later when Josh Lowe lined up an inside-out splitter in right field, 7-6. Walks, pickoff runners, singles, doubles and three-run home runs followed as the Rays knocked out Finnegan to lead 10–6.
“Let’s watch some things, some videos and see if he’s doing something different,” Martinez said when asked about Closer’s struggles after the loss. “It just means he’s not in a good place right now. We fought back, came back and the boys played well, ball, defense, so unfortunately we had 9 innings to play and we couldn’t finish it.
Backpage – Stealing:
With larger bases and new limits on the number of times a pitcher can throw to first base, an increase in stolen bases was fairly easily predictable and sort of a goal (.guess so), and that was the case during the first weekend of the 2023 MLB campaign.
2023: 70 out of 84 (83.3%)
2022: 29 out of 43 (67.4%)
“Because of the very high SB%,” added Passant. Your success rate will definitely drop. ”
Count the Nationals among those expecting to run a little more than the first weekend of the season.
In the first four games of the year, the Nationals were one of four teams without a stolen base. Luis Garcia was thrown out on the club’s lone try in his first four games, but coach Davey Martinez said it was a matter of context in his first three. game.
“It’s hard when you’re behind in the first inning,” Martinez joked before the series opener against the Rays in Tampa Bay on Monday afternoon.
“Yesterday,” he continued. [Atlanta Braves’ starter Jared Shuster, was] A left-handed pitcher, he got home pretty early, but he takes his chances when he gets the chance. ”
But when they do, Martinez says:
“And we talked a little bit about this, you know, circumstances dictate when we run, but we definitely want to take advantage of that. We see stealing, and sometimes the game dictates how far we run. We can steal more bases, but we’re definitely working on it.”
Photo by Charles Block/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
On the flip side, Martinez and his staff have been telling pitchers all spring that they need to get to bat quickly, knowing that the team is determined to run more.
“We stress it all the time,” he said.
“We have to run fast. That’s the only way to stop them from running. Just don’t go there, and all of a sudden — because if you sit there as a baserunner and the pitcher does the same thing over and over again, you can time the pitcher. I’m going to try to encourage the pitcher to mix your holds because it’s just going to measure.”
Asked if he had any concerns about having pitchers on his staff and the time to plate being an issue, the manager pointed to the back end of the bullpen.
“[Kyle] Finnegan was the only one we were worried about,” Martinez explained. “He was 1.3 in spring training. The starting pitcher is the player you want to give a double play chance to, not just get on base and run.
“give keybert [Ruiz] He can throw everyone out, so here’s your chance to throw them out.
Give Adams a chance:
Keibert-Lewis has started and caught every inning in the first four games of the season, but with the 26-year-old backstop behind the plate in Chad Cool’s debut, Riley Adams ultimately ended up last night. was the turn to take the lead.
“He did well in spring training,” Davey Martinez explained before last night’s game, as the backstop hit two doubles and three homers on the bases and posted 15K in 19 games played this spring. was recorded.
“He has grown a lot. People really enjoyed throwing at him when he was there so we didn’t miss it too much.He came back this year and changed a bit.With his swing, we I saw more power in his swing, so it was great to see that.
![Atlanta Braves v. Washington Nationals](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/P_RgiP_vuMzNMom2RzHRRLuVVqg=/0x0:6026x4019/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6026x4019):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24561935/1249951461.jpg)
Photo by Rob Tlingali/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Martinez was candid with the capital’s reserve catcher, explaining to Adams how often he was going to use him and setting expectations for what he wanted to see when he started.
“I said to him, ‘Look, you’re going to be playing once or twice a week. Remember, your number one priority is calling games and catching them. It’s a good pitch to hit and you try to hit the ball somewhere.”
In the course of his usual routine of watching games the night after the game, the manager said he saw a lot of positive things from Adams behind the plate.
“Like I said, I’ll go back and replay the game. [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey — what we want to see, how we want to approach each game, and he follows the game plan very well. That’s good, and like I said, catchers are big targets and pitchers love to throw at him.