Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop second straight to Cubs; 5-3 in D.C.; DJ Herz runs into trouble in 5th…

DJ IN D.C.:

In his previous four starts before facing the Chicago Cubs on Saturday afternoon in D.C., DJ Herz gave up 6 of the 15 hits, 7 of his 11 walks, and 4 of the 7 runs he allowed in the outings in the first innings of those appearances.

“The first inning over the last couple of starts has been rough,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters, as quoted on MLB.com, after Herz tossed a clean first inning (minus the HBP and the 2 walks which loaded the bases before he got out of the 27-pitch bottom of the inning in Atlanta) against the Braves last week in Truist Park, “… but he seems to settle down a little bit and he starts throwing strikes and utilizing his pitches.

“It’s about getting the ball close to the zone because his stuff is really good. If he gets too erratic, that’s when he gets in trouble. When he keeps the ball in the zone, he gets a lot of swings and misses.”

“[The first inning] has been like that three times in a row,” Herz said. “That’ll stop eventually, but I just keep grinding through [my starts] and they will eventually change.”

Asked how he’s able to put the rough firsts behind him and settle in, Herz told reporters, “It all happens just by attacking the zone. When I’m attacking the zone and [I get] settled in, it all plays.

“I’m not chasing anything, I’m just letting it happen.”

Martinez said his starter would also have to deal with the emotions of going against his one-time team, since he was facing the Cubs who drafted him in the 8th Round in 2019 and traded him (along with infielder Kevin Made) to the Nationals (for Jeimer Candelario in 2023).

“He’s going to be a little wild, I mean, not pitch-wise, yeah, it’s his old team, right?” Martinez said. “But we got to be able to control his heartbeat, but we expect him to go out there and compete, and I know he’ll do that.”

“He might be a little anxious. We got to get him through that first inning. We’ve said that his last few outings. He comes out and he’s just geeked up, ready to go. We’ve to get him to slow his heartbeat down and get him through that first inning and settle in and he should be fine.”

Herz, who said in Spring Training he wanted to show Chicago they made a mistake when they dealt him, got through a quick, clean first, worked around a walk (and balk) in the top of the second, and struck out 2 of 3 batters in the third for three scoreless (and hitless) on 46 pitches.

Herz retired the Cubs in order in a 13-pitch fourth which left him at 59 pitches overall, but it went all pear-shaped for the southpaw in the fifth. He took the mound with a 2-0 lead, but a single by Isaac Paredes for the first hit by the visiting team, a walk to Michael Busch, and a line drive single by Nico Hoerner loaded the bases with no one out before a sac fly by Pete Crow-Armstrong cut the lead in half, 2-1, an RBI single by Christian Bethancourt tied things up at 2-2, and a ground ball to the mound brought in the third run, 3-2 Cubbies.

That was it for Herz, who threw 87 pitches total in the outing, walking two, striking out five, and giving up three hits and four earned runs, the fourth scoring after he was in the home dugout, 4-2, in what ended up a 5-3 win for the Cubs.

“We talked about the first inning, right?” Martinez said after the second straight loss in the series. “The first inning he came out and he threw the ball really well, and then he had one inning where he just got the ball up a little bit. So, we tried to get him out of the inning, he couldn’t get it. He threw one changeup right down the middle, it cost him a couple runs.

“But overall I thought he threw the ball [well]. Pitch count got up there, but he was attacking the zone.

“Sometimes he was trying to make that finish pitch, he couldn’t get it over, and he got into deep counts.”

“I think there were times when I got 0-2 or 1-2 and I was trying to maybe [get hitters to] chase,” Herz said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, “… instead of just staying in the zone and not nibbling,” the lefty said. “I think that came back to get me, especially in that last inning.”

LEADOFF SPOT:

Davey Martinez gave CJ Abrams a night off against Yankees’ lefty Carlos Rodón on Wednesday night, with the shortstop scuffling at the plate and mired in a long-ish slump this month (.184/.250/.322 line in August).

“We’ve got a day off tomorrow. I wanted to give him two days off,” he explained. “I told him there’s a good chance he might get into the game today, so be ready. But I wanted to get him off his feet. He’s played a lot. He went through the All-Star break, didn’t really have any time off. So I’m trying to give him a day off here and there.”

Martinez moved rookie Dylan Crews up to the top of the Nationals’ lineup in the series finale with New York.

“I would really like him to hit up at the top because he does take pitches, he understands the strike zone, but yet he’s aggressive,” Martinez said, as quoted by MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato. “I know that he can walk, so I would love to hit him up at the top.”

Martinez told reporters he would keep his newest outfielder up top against a lefty in the series opener with Chicago (NL) and he did, even with Abrams back in there in the first of three with the Cubs.

Abrams hit seventh in the lineup.

“Just want to give him a little breather,” the skipper said of dropping Abrams to the 7-hole. “I want him to relax a little bit, just kind of start working better at-bats. As you know, he’s chasing a lot. I just want him to kind of slow down a little bit. So I talked to him before I sent the lineup out. He’s good with it. And like I said, when you start getting on base and taking your walks, I want you to get back up there. But we need to slow you down a little bit. He’s just swinging a lot.”

Seeing Abrams revert to some bad habits at the plate led the manager to make the decision to shake things up a bit.

“He’s got to go back to using the middle of the field and swinging at strikes,” he said. “I know he likes swinging at the first pitch, as we always see. I told him, I said, “I’m not going to tell you not to, especially if you get a fastball, but it’s got to be in the zone. And that’s where we need to be.’ But like I said, he worked his way to be a leadoff hitter. He’s going to do it again. I just want to just ease his mind a little bit and just go out there and have fun and get some decent pitches to hit. If not, walk.”

As Martinez noted, Abrams has struggled throughout the second half, with a rough .178/.243/.282 line over 35 games and his 148 plate appearances since the All-Star Break, after a .268/.343/.489 first half (in 89 games and 398 PAs).

“He’s been struggling pretty much since the All-Star break and we’re trying to get him going,” Martinez said.

”I think the biggest thing we need to do with him is understand that he needs to slow his feet down. He’s really going to get the baseball. We need him to get back, get ready early, and slow his feet down a little bit.”

“It’s been going on for a while, been wanting to do it for a while, and I thought, ‘Let’s do it now and see if we can get him back so he can finish the season off strong.’ A lot of teams move their guys all over the place.”

The hope, Martinez said, is Abrams will see the way opposing pitchers attach his teammates (especially his fellow lefties in the lineup) and be better prepared for his own at-bats.

“I want him to focus on watching some of the other guys’ at-bats, and see what the pitcher is doing for a little bit until he goes up there.

“We talked about that today —- he gets to see a couple lefties like [James] Wood and [José] Tena hit in front of him and see what the pitcher is trying to do to them.

“Hopefully he’ll understand what the guy is trying to do and see what the balls are doing.”

If the move sparks something in Abrams, and he finishes strong he’ll end the year on a positive note.

“I think it will help him. I think, one, like I said, the pressure of being that first guy to get on base and try to get something going for us, it’s definitely a lot of pressure,” Martinez acknowledged.

“Right now, I think the best thing for him is just to kind of move him down, not feel the added pressure. He can hit, as we all know, but just getting him back in the zone, and getting him to take some pitches maybe will definitely help him out, and like I said, once he gets going again we’ll get him back up there.”