HERZ vs SDP:
DJ Hurts threw 33 pitches in the fourth inning and 76 in the third inning. 2⁄3 After one inning at Coors Field, Davey Martinez ended the 23-year-old left-hander’s fourth major league start.
“DJ just got a little tired at the end,” the Nationals manager explained.
“He threw over 30 pitches in that inning and he was starting to get a little out of whack so we had to get him out.”
Hertz gave up seven hits (three home runs), four runs (three earned), struck out five batters and struck out 12 (Nine of those were four-seam fastballs.), 12 strikes (His fastball is 9He found some positives in this outing, especially the lack of walks in his lineup.
Photo by Dennis Polloi/Getty Images
“Overall I thought it was good. I’m happy with the number of strikes and the lack of walks,” Hurts said. Quote from MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.
“Right after he left the game, I said, ‘You should be proud of yourself,'” Martinez told reporters.
“‘It’s not easy pitching here. Everyone’s going to hit you. You’re pitching here for the first time. But you did a good job.’ He attacked the strike zone hard, just like we asked him to.
“In this ballpark, you hit it. He did a really good job.”
Hertz, pitching at 72 feet above sea level (5,200 feet when he last pitched), struggled with control of his fastball in Wednesday’s series finale at Petco Park, giving up a two-out single in the first inning and a one-out single and a two-run homer with two outs in the second inning. Jackson Merrill smashed a 2-1 fastball into center field and Kyle Higashioka smashed a 1-1 changeup into left field into the 386-foot zone for an early 2-0 lead.
A leadoff double, a single and a wild pitch with a runner on third put the Padres up 3-0, before Jurickson Profar hit a one-run single with one out to make it 4-0 on Hurts’ 66th and final pitch of the game.
Hurts struck out just three times on the day, but he threw 12 strikes with his fastball, cutter and changeup in a 5-4-3 split.
“I think I’ve got to be able to hit pitches well when I’m leading,” Hurts said of his time on the mound. Quote from MASN’s Bobby Blanco“I think I throw my off-speed pitches a little bit too high up the middle, and they’re taking advantage of that right now. I think it’s just about executing.”
“DJ’s fastball control was a little out of whack,” his manager said after the team’s 9-5 loss to the Padres (who have won their third straight game). “He couldn’t control his fastball, so he started throwing more changeups. But he went out there and competed with all his might. Every day he’s out there is a learning process.”
“We’ll get him back and he’ll be ready to go within five days.”
Meanwhile, Dylan Cease dominated the Nationals’ hitters and pitched a no-hitter through the fourth inning. 2⁄3 He pitched seven innings, allowing only one hit and two walks but striking out nine, throwing 102 pitches, throwing 65 strikes, 16 whiffs and 18 strikeouts.
“Ceace was really good,” Martinez said when asked about the offense’s struggles in the third of three games against the Padres. “Our guys had trouble controlling his slider. Ceace was really effective. He’s got the sweeper, he’s got the slider, and he played with it today. So it was a tough day. A tough day offensively. And then once Ceace went out of the game, we started swinging the bat a little better. We’ve just got to forget about this series. We had a day off in Tampa. Hopefully the guys enjoyed themselves. We’ll be ready to go out there again and have a good weekend.”
Menstruation with RISP:
Joey Meneses is batting .243/.297/.323 in 279 at-bats in 68 games this season, but he’s also hitting well with the ball in scoring position (22-for-67, .328/.393/.433), including a three-RBI single against the Padres on Monday. So far in the major leagues, the 32-year-old middle-of-the-line hitter is batting .327/.372/.456 with the ball in scoring position in 333 at-bats.
“He’s been great lately,” Nationals captain Davey Martinez told reporters in his pregame press conference on Tuesday, and the club backed that up with numbers in its pregame notes.
“[Meneses is] … Since April 25, he is batting .375 (18-for-48) with 29 RBI and one base. To start the season, he was 4-for-19 (.211) with one base.”
“He’s a guy that we’ve relied on for the last year and a half and he’s done really well,” Martinez added. “I know sometimes it gets frustrating because he wants to be a more power hitter. We just have to tell him, ‘Hey, when we get guys in scoring position, you’re the only guy that can get him to home plate,’ and he’s done a great job at that. I think he’s leading the team or in the top of the RBIs, which is great. We want him to be a power hitter, but we’re not going to push the envelope to do that…because like I said before, he’s a guy that we want to score for us when we get guys on base in front of him.”
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Photo by Dennis Polloi/Getty Images
“The Nationals’ Meneses was in the mood for the second of three games against the Padres at Petco,” he said. [had] He has a hit in 11 of his last 13 games, recording 15 hits in 46 at-bats (.326 batting average), four doubles, a home run and 10 RBIs.[s]3 walks, 6 runs scored…Last 28 games: .286/.321/.418 batting average, 7 doubles, 2 home runs, 19 RBIs, 5 walks, hit by pitch, 11 runs scored.”
He hasn’t hit with the same power he did in his breakout season in 2022 or last season, but that’s not a big concern for manager Meneses, who doesn’t want to see the slugger swing for a home run because he’s not going to be out of form at the plate.
“He gets outs in front,” Martinez explained. “A lot of times the ground balls come from there or he jams himself. I don’t want him to do that. He’s really good when he stays in the middle of the field. Sometimes he gets hit by the ball, but I told him, ‘You remember when you first came in you hit a bunch of home runs to right-center field,’ and I said, ‘You’re the guy that tries to pull the ball. You make the pull move, but when you get really good you stay behind the ball better than anybody and use your hands. And he’s getting it back. The ball he hit yesterday, he hit it hard.’
