Offensive woes…then Luis Garcia Jr.:
Joey Meneses went 4-for-30 (.133/.133/.167) with two 1K and 5K in the Nationals’ seven-game road trip to Miami and Texas.
Jesse Winker went 4-for-27 (.148/.233/.259) with one home run, three walks and eight strikeouts in 30 at-bats.
Keibert Ruiz started in five of seven games and had 2 hits in 18 at bats (.111/.200/.278) with a home run, a walk, and three strikeouts.
Eddie Rosario went 0-for-14 with 1 walk and 5 Ks in five games on the road (four starts), and fell into a prolonged slump with 0-for-30 in the final 10 games.
Davey Martinez’s club scored 33 points in a four-game sweep against the Marlins, but dropped two of their three points against the Rangers in Arlington, Texas, scoring just two points in three games.
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Coach Martinez reiterated his support for Rosario after Thursday’s 6-0 loss in the series finale at Texas, after talking about acquiring the veteran outfielder earlier in the trip. Rosario said he is well aware that his manager believes he can turn things around and start hitting like the player who hit .255/.305/.450 with 24 doubles and 21 home runs last year. Ta. atlanta braves.
“I talked to him a lot. He understands how I feel about him,” Martinez explained. is today. He’s going to have a chance against right-handed pitchers and he hits really well, so I hope he can get out of that situation today. ”
Rosario went 0-for-2 with 2 Ks in three of three games against the Rangers, but he wasn’t the only one who struggled against Nathan Eovaldi and the home team’s relievers.
When asked about the offense’s struggles throughout the series, Martinez reiterated his offensive mantra: “We’ve got to start hitting the ball up the middle.”
“If our lineup is going to start trickling down, we’ve got to start doing something too. Guys can’t get on base and put together three or four hits, so we had to go. But other than that, it was a good trip, it really was. Let’s go home now and try to win 1-0 tomorrow.”
Of course, it’s one thing to discuss what can be done to improve the situation. It’s not easy to go up to bat and do that.
“If you think it’s easy to hit, you’re so wrong about this game, because it’s not,” he told reporters before his flight back to the capital.
“So we just had to keep going and keep grinding. They’re working hard and I know they are, so we just kept trying and like I said earlier. We can come back today and win 1-0 tomorrow.”
Having multiple hitters in the middle of the lineup sluggish at the same time is a recipe for disaster on offense, so the Nationals are looking to get some of the hitters mentioned above, and preferably all of them, to get a handle on the situation. In need of.
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Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images
“We have players who press us a little bit,” Martinez admitted. “They want to get out of there with just one swing. They just have to be patient and, like I said, try to stay in the middle of the field and hit the ball hard. But try to get the ball into the strike zone and stay in the middle of the field. You can’t try to do too much.”
Despite concerns about poor performance from some hitters, the Nationals won five of seven games on the road, and a few things went right for the club.
“We have to start. The middle of the lineup has to start pushing in some ways for us, but overall,” Martinez said. There were a lot of positives — we ran the bases well, so like I said, we’re going to start the offense, okay. ”
In the series opener, the offense allowed just one run through six innings. toronto blue jays But last night, with the Nationals losing 3-1 in the nation’s capital, Luis Garcia Jr. came on as a pinch hitter with two on and two out in the home half of the seventh inning and drove in three runs. He hit the first pitch he saw to center field, matching the Nats’ previous total of 33 runs on one swing, 4-3.
In the second half of the inning, Nick Senzel added one run with a double, and the home team trailed by four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the offense scored eight runs in two innings, winning 9-3.
