Welcome to Coors Field:
In two series losses against the Arizona Diamondbacks, manager Davey Martinez’s team allowed a total of eight hits, two runs and zero walks.
The team recorded six hits and four walks in a 3-1 victory in the second of three games in Washington.
The offense hasn’t been particularly impressive, but the manager told reporters after the final game of the three-game series that he wasn’t worried about a lack of offensive power.
The Washington captain acknowledged that Arizona’s pitchers played a role, but said hitters missed pitches that were in the zone.
“I just missed some balls I should have hit,” he explained.
“We’re getting the ball and we’re fouling. We’ve got to get on them. Like I said, we’ve got to get on these starting pitchers early. I don’t mind them swinging early.”
“Today, we hit some fastballs, they came right back and fouled us off, and we got some early outs. But these guys are coming at us in this series. We’ve got to be ready to hit. We’ve got to just be ready to hit.”
Martinez and his staff have always stressed the need for hitters to be disciplined, but it’s clear that launching balls into the zone with force is the right approach.
“When the good pitch comes, you have to hit it,” Martinez said. “It really is. When you’re deep in the count, it’s hard to hit. If you look at the average of a two-strike hitter in the major leagues, it’s the same as a pitcher hitting. It’s hard. So when the good pitch comes, you’ve got to be ready to hit it. When they throw you a good pitch, you better be ready to hit it. Know what pitch you want to swing at. And when the ball comes, you take it, you put it in play, you try to hit it hard. That’s the key to hitting. When you’re a little down, there are moments when it’s not happening. Then you start watching the ball. If you feel like you’re down, watch the ball and get back in. You can’t just swing and get away with it in this game. You can’t. All of a sudden you start chasing. You’ve got to get out of that situation.”
Of course, even if you make a good pitch and make good contact, you can’t control what happens after that. You can make good contact and still get an out, but that’s part of the game.
“The men [Jesse] Turn signals and lanes [Thomas]”Both of our guys hit home runs in the final game of the series, so we can’t get frustrated. I mean, we’re swinging the bat and hitting the ball. When the ball comes our way, we’re going to hit it. The other guys, it’s just about consistency. We go up to bat and have three good at-bats. That’s going to be key for us. We need to get consistent at-bats and make the games last a little longer. It’s like we go up to bat, we get three outs in six or seven minutes and the pitcher goes up to bat again. So we’ve got to make the innings longer, get some guys on base and try to out-strike our opponents.”
Heading into the first of a three-game series this weekend at Coors Field, Martinez cautiously anticipated that the stadium’s notoriously hitter-friendly one-mile altitude air would spur hitters on.
“I remember playing here last year and losing 1-0,” he said. “I don’t want that to happen again.”
Martinez’s team was shut out in the opening game at home to the Rockies last season, but scored 23 runs in the next three games and won two of the next four to finish 2-1.
“But yeah,” he added, “this ballpark is big, but the ball travels. So I want to see guys get some good at-bats, get down to the fastball and just focus on getting a good at-bat today.”
“You’ve got to hit the ball well,” he explained. “I always tell my guys, know yourself, right? That’s the first thing you’ve got to do. You’re a hitter to center field, and it’s 0-0, look for a hitter to center field. If you’re doing that, don’t chase the ball past home plate. So that’s how it all starts. And sometimes getting strikes helps.”
“We talked about it a lot in our hitter meeting today, and I told them too, ‘When the ball comes, be ready to hit it, especially when there’s a guy in scoring position. Just be ready to hit it.’ I went back this morning and watched some at-bats, and I feel like we’re just caught in the middle. They see the fastball and they can’t pull the trigger or they’re a little late. So we want them to be ready. If they’re ready to hit the fastball, they can always adjust for the curveball.”
After a 19-hit, nine-long hit, 11-5 victory over Colorado, the Washington captain was asked what specifically he told the Nationals’ hitters in their pregame meeting and how he thought they responded to that game plan.
“For me, like I always say, it stays in the circle,” he joked after knocking out Rockies right-hander Dakota Hudson for 11 hits, two walks and eight runs against a starter who threw 66 pitches.
“They responded really well,” Martinez said.
“That’s what I mean. We talked a lot about ‘know thyself.’ Know who you are, know what pitch you want to attack. Focus on the fastball. We did a good job today.”
CJ Abrams returned to the lineup after missing two games because of a ganglion cyst in his left wrist, going 3-for-5 with two home runs.
Lane Thomas was 3-for-5 with a double, a triple and a single, but fell one shy of hitting for the cycle.
Eddie Rosario, Luis Garcia Jr., Nick Senzel, Drew Milas and Jacob Young all had multi-hit games. Their nine extra-base hits and 19 total hits were all season highs.
“We hung on to the ball and utilized the whole field,” Martinez said. “We really did. CJ had a couple hits the other way – big hits. Jacob Young had a hit the other way too. Everyone contributed on the offensive side and everyone did really well. Milas hit the ball straight to center field – it was awesome.”
“We focused on getting the ball up in the zone, staying on the ball and trying to stay in the middle of the field so we can hit the hanging curveballs hard. Once we were ready for the fastball, we saw results.”
