NEW YORK – The Nationals’ hitters were in a funk prior to Monday, scoring 11 runs in their past seven games and hitting .183 with 46 strikeouts. According to manager Dave Martinez, the position players have been swinging at a lot of balls out of the strike zone.
“We’re getting balls to hit, [but] we’re just missing them,” the skipper said. “So we’ve got to get back to just squaring the balls up and stay in the middle of the field. We’re really good when we hit the ball in the middle of the field and take our walks.”
Washington did a little better in the batter’s box, but not enough in a 5-4 loss to the Mets in 10 innings at Citi Field.
It was a game that saw shortstop CJ Abrams get out of his slump. Prior to Monday, Abrams was hitless in his past nine at-bats and was 4-for-25 (.160) in June.
Before Monday’s game, Abrams had a conversation with Martinez about the slump. The skipper told him to swing at pitches at the heart of the plate, use the entire field and don’t be afraid to take a walk.
“Being the leadoff hitter, I want to get on base,” Abrams said. “So I have to take my walks and not miss the pitch I want to hit.”
Abrams ended up with a great game by going 3-for-4, including his ninth home run of the season. He did his damage against New York starting in the first inning against Griffin Canning. Abrams led off with a double and scored on a two-run homer by Nathaniel Lowe.
Abrams added to the scoring an inning later when he doubled down the right-field line, scoring Alex Call. In the fifth, Abrams went yard, hitting a homer over the left-center-field wall to make it a 4-2 game.
“That was awesome [to watch],” Martinez said about Abrams. “He did a much better job not chasing today, staying in the middle of the field. Big home run to left field. That’s who he is, but we have to keep him there. That’s the big thing. When he does that, he really hits the ball hard.”
The game went into extra innings because Nationals left-hander Jose A. Ferrer had a difficult time getting the third out in the eighth, and right fielder Robert Hassell III misplayed a ball in that inning.
The Nationals had a 4-2 lead going into the eighth. Ferrer struck out the first two batters and was ahead in the count, 0-2, to Starling Marte, but five pitches later Marte worked a walk.
“That’s everything,” Martinez said.
Juan Soto then hit a low line drive to Hassell, and the rookie was unable to catch the ball as it rolled past him for an RBI double to make it a one-run game.
“The ball hooked on [Hassell] really bad. It went over his glove. It was a hard-hit ball. It hooked on him at the last minute,” Martinez said. “In those situations, you get two outs like that, you are 0-2 [to Marte], you have to put that guy away.”
In the 10th inning with Nationals right-hander Cole Henry on the mound and the score tied at 4, Jeff McNeil singled down the right-field line on the first pitch he saw, scoring Luisangel Acuña to end the game.
Left-hander MacKenzie Gore wasn’t the strikeout machine the Nationals were used to seeing. But he was solid enough to pitch six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out six.
“I don’t think I was great, but we made pitches when we needed to,” Gore said.