Pitching, pitching, pitching… and defense:
Washington’s pitching staff, starting and relief, finished the four-game series in Atlanta with the 11th-best ERA (3.83) and fourth-best FIP (3.58) in the major leagues.
The Nationals’ starting pitchers’ 3.93 ERA was 14th out of 30 teams, and their 3.55 FIP was 6th.
DC’s relievers were 10th in the majors with a 3.67 ERA and sixth with a 3.63 FIP.
“We have a good group of guys,” GM and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo told 106.7 the FAN at D.C.’s Sports Junkies this week, attributing the team’s success to the messaging from pitching coach Jim Hickey, assistant pitching coach Sean Doolittle and minor league pitching coordinator Sam Narron. “But the guys are learning the secondary pieces, poise and controlling the ball. You know, we put a lot of emphasis in spring training on throwing strikes and we’re starting to see the fruits of all the hard work from our guys.”
Nationals manager Davey Martinez said a zone attack was essential for his pitchers in the series against the Braves, in which the team’s starting pitchers walked four batters in four games.
“We’ve got to attack the strike zone. That’s what we’ve got to do. We can’t give them a free pass,” he said.
“Our starting pitchers have really taken to it, and it’s had a ripple effect on all of our players.”
“They’re attacking the zone and getting hitters into swing mode, so they’re seeing good results.”
Martinez underscored that fact after veteran Trevor Williams got off to another solid start in the series finale at Truist Park.
“They’re pitching really well,” he said. “I talked about this earlier. We’re attacking the zone, not walking a lot of batters, and that gets hitters into swing mode.”
“Like I said before, that’s a good thing. We’re playing very efficiently as well, so it was a good night for Trevor and all of our pitchers were really good.”
Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images
Heading into the first of a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians this weekend at Progressive Field, the Nationals noted that their starting pitchers are in good form, posting a 2.27 ERA (12 ER/47.2 innings) over their last eight games with an MLB-best 56 strikeouts, a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 8.00 and seven walks, which is tied for the fewest in MLB since May 22.
Patrick Corbin had a 6.12 ERA, 5.01 FIP and 60 hits allowed in 11 starts against the Guardians. 1⁄3 Pitching his highest innings of the year, he got off to another solid start for the Nationals, allowing five hits and three walks over six innings and giving up two runs in the third inning after walking and singleing the leadoff batter in his first two at-bats.
Guardians outfielder Tyler Freeman hit a grounder toward the 5-6 hole, which Nick Senzel deflected toward short, and C.J. Abrams dove in and slammed his face into the ground, needing a second to recover before each team scored their first run of the game, making the score 1-0. Jose Ramirez’s RBI grounder scored the second run, making the score 2-0.
Corbin held his own through the sixth inning, and in the seventh, Eddie Rosario doubled to bring in a run for the visitors, getting his third hit of the game off starter Tanner Bibby and his first against a player other than Luis Garcia Jr. Garcia Jr. had a fourth-inning single and a leadoff hit in the seventh, his only two hits off Bibby to that point.
Jacob Burns replaced Corbin in the seventh inning and allowed a walk, a single and an infield hit by Josh Naylor with the bases loaded with one out, so the Nationals brought in left-hander Robert Garcia to relieve him, but Garcia hit a grounder that turned into a potential double play that the defense couldn’t prevent.They approached), 3-1.
David Fry (He started the season batting .419 with a .594 on-base percentage and a .791 slugging percentage against left-handed pitchers.) hit Garcia’s first pitch into left-center field for a three-run homer for a 6-1 lead.
“We were one pitch away from ending the inning,” Martinez said after a 7-1 loss in the series opener against the Guardians. “You can’t hit a double play. [Garcia’s] Must be faced [Fry].
“Overall, Garcia, the guy we wanted to get, was the nailer in that situation and got the ball on the ground.”
His team finished the night with four total hits, three of which came from Garcia Jr. He was 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and had runners on five bases overall, but the team still lost the game.
“look, [Bibee] “We just kept the ball in the zone,” Martinez explained.
“He’s got a good changeup, we knew that. Today was one of those days. I felt good, so let’s come back tomorrow and go 1-0.”
“We had three hits today, and we should have had two double plays and we didn’t, and we walked six. When you walk that many guys and you pitch that many pitches, guys can hit the ball, but Patrick pitched really well, really well. He kept us in the game.”
