By the sixth inning, DJ Herz had mastered his strikeout strut. He had done it 10 times entering the frame, and with each ensuing punchout, his stalk around the mound became just a bit more pronounced.
Washington, D.C
Rookie DJ Herz delivers historic dominance as the Nats blank Marlins
His last hitter in the Nationals’ 4-0 win over the Miami Marlins on Saturday afternoon at Nationals Park was Tim Anderson, who had fanned twice. Herz got up 0-2, and Anderson asked for time in a bid to disrupt Herz’s timing. Nothing else worked to that point, so maybe a few extra seconds could rattle the 23-year-old rookie.
No chance. Two pitches later, Herz threw a 93-mph fastball by Anderson for his 13th and final strikeout. And when Anderson swung through the pitch, Herz showed off more than a strut. This time, he turned his back to the home dugout, backpedaled and put his hands out before shaking his glove.
“This outing, I wanted to control my body language a little bit more, be a little better at that,” Herz said. “The first five innings, it was perfect. And then I got the last strikeout, and I kind of had a feeling that I was done. And I just let my emotions fly a little bit.”
Before his start, Herz said he had a conversation with Jake Irvin about wanting to be emotionless on the mound. “I just wanted to go out there and be a stone-cold killer.”
Mission accomplished. The only blemish in his six innings was a Jake Burger single that got past Trey Lipscomb to start the fifth inning. The Nationals (34-36) have won seven of eight and will go for a series sweep Sunday.
Manager Dave Martinez pulled Herz after the sixth. The numbers: one hit, 13 strikeouts, 84 pitches, 57 for strikes. And perhaps most important to Herz: no walks.
“He and [catcher Drew] Millas worked really good and very quick,” Martinez said. “And they did get into that rhythm, and he was feeling it.”
In a Nationals season that will be defined by the growth of the team’s young starters, Herz could be the surprise of the bunch. The team knew Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin would be big league contributors this season, and Mitchell Parker has been a welcome addition. But Herz, a 6-foot-2 left-hander acquired from the Cubs at the trade deadline last season in the Jeimer Candelario deal, delivered one of the best starts in the majors this season.
Per OptaStats, his 68.4 strikeout percentage (13 of the 19 hitters faced) was the second highest by an MLB rookie in the modern era with a minimum of 15 batters faced, trailing only the Cubs’ Kerry Wood in his 20-strikeout game from 1998. His strikeout total was the most by a Nationals pitcher since Max Scherzer fanned 14 in May 2021.
“Everything was working tonight, so we couldn’t really go wrong,” Millas said.
One more fact from the start that has local appeal: Herz became one of two MLB pitchers with a start of at least 13 strikeouts and no walks in one of his first three outings since 1901 — the other being Stephen Strasburg in his debut June 8, 2010. Pretty good company, especially for a guy who didn’t make it out of the fifth inning in each of his first two starts. He was on a pitch limit in his major league debut. And in the second, it took him 87 pitches to get through 4⅓ innings.
Herz couldn’t consistently throw his best pitch, his change-up, in the zone in his first two outings. But he told pitching strategist Sean Doolittle that he felt different entering this start.
This time around, Herz was efficient in the first four innings as he racked up the strikeouts. He struck out four and threw just 24 pitches in the first two innings. In the third, Herz struck out the side and followed that up with one more in the fourth. He retired the first 12 Marlins before Burger’s single.
“The game didn’t speed up. That’s probably the most calm and relaxed I was,” Herz said. “It’s all about, for me at least, getting comfortable. That might take a little time, but it’s starting to come now.”
The Nationals’ offense jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Lane Thomas doubled, Jesse Winker — who exited in the third inning and will get an MRI exam on his right knee — singled and Joey Meneses hit a sacrifice fly. Thomas hit his second home run in as many days in the third inning to extend the Nationals’ lead. Meneses added a two-run blast in the eighth.
Herz, meanwhile, induced 21 whiffs in 45 swings, including 13 on four-seam fastballs. The Marlins swung through fastballs right down the middle. They watched change-ups paint the corners for called strikes and shook their heads. They chased in the dirt. And as each Marlins hitter slumped back to the dugout, Herz continued to strut.
“I mean, it still doesn’t feel real,” Herz said. “I’m super blessed. That was my probably my best game I’ve ever pitched. And to do it at this level, it’s a great feeling.”
Notes: The Nationals announced they agreed to terms on a minor league contract with outfielder Harold Ramirez, who will report to Class AAA Rochester. Ramirez, 29, is a six-year major league veteran who was designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays last week. He also had stints with the Miami Marlins and Cleveland Guardians. Ramirez hit .313 with 12 home runs and a .813 OPS a season ago but hasn’t produced the same pop this season; he’s hitting .268 with a .589 OPS and only four of his hits have been for extra bases. . . .
Cade Cavalli threw two innings and around 45 pitches in a live bullpen session Saturday afternoon, facing Trey Lipscomb and Nasim Nuñez. Cavalli said his arm felt good as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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