Washington Nationals news & notes: DJ Herz Ks 10; Nats lose to Mets in extras, 7-2 + Josiah Gray shut down…

Notes and quotes from a busy Tuesday in the nation’s capital…

HERZ’S TURN:

“DJ’s fastball command was a little off,” manager Davey Martinez said after left-hander DJ Herz’s 3 1/3-inning, 66-pitch outing last week on the road in Petco Park.

“He threw a lot more changeups because he couldn’t command his fastball,” Martinez continued. “But he went out and competed and gave us everything he had. Just every day he goes out there it’s a learning process. We’ll get him back and he’ll be ready to go in another five days.”

Herz, 23, said after the start he struggled to put hitters away.

“I think I just got to be better at executing pitches when I’m getting ahead,” the southpaw told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco. “I think I’m just leaving some off-speed pitches too much middle-middle and they’re taking advantage of it right now. I think just executing is the big thing.”

It was the second consecutive in which Herz failed to get through four innings, following a 3 2/3-inning turn in the rotation in Coors Field in which he got up to 76 pitches before Martinez went to the bullpen, explaining afterwards that Herz was, “a little tired,” and, “started losing his mechanics.”

Before last night’s game, Martinez said he wasn’t too concerned about the relatively short outings by Herz, explaining that at this point in his career he just wants to see the lefty go out there and compete as long as he can.

“If it’s four innings, he gives us everything he has for four innings, beautiful, and then we’ll figure something out,” the manager said. “But he’s done well. He’s come a long way. He’s pitching well.”

Herz dominated New York Mets’ hitters on Tuesday night in the nation’s capital, striking out 10 of the 22 batters he faced while giving up only one earned run in 5 ²⁄₃ IP, over which he threw 92 pitches, 70 for strikes, piling up a total of 16 swinging strikes, nine with his fastball, and 19 called strikes, nine on his heater, which sat 94 and got up to 96.3 MPH.

Herz worked around three hits in five scoreless before giving up the only run he allowed on a 1-2 fastball up high, inside Francisco Lindor hit 403 ft. to left in Nationals Park to make it a 2-1 game in the home team’s favor. He picked up his 9th and 10th Ks for the first two outs of the inning, then gave up a two-out single by Pete Alonso which ended his outing.

It was 2-1 Nationals until the Mets tied things up in the top of the eighth and won it with five runs in the top of the tenth inning.

“We need to start winning games in regulation, is what we need to do,” Martinez said after his club’s sixth loss in eight extra-inning games this season.

“We’ve got to start hitting a little better,” he added.

“And you can’t score two runs, three runs, and expect to win against a team that is notorious for scoring a bunch of runs. We’ve got to start hitting better.”

“What DJ Herz did today though, was awesome,” Martinez pivoted. “[Herz] went out there and pitched really, really well. To me that’s what we need to see. Our young pitchers are keeping us in ballgames, we got a chance to win games, we just got to finish games, we got to score some runs, put some runs on the board, and not always be 2-2, 2-1, 3-2, we got to start putting teams away.”

ALSO THIS:

JOSIAH GRAY HEADED FOR MRI ON ELBOW:

“Honestly, I felt really good going into it,” Josiah Gray said, as quoted by MASN writer Mark Zuckerman, of the progress he was making in his recovery from a right elbow/forearm flexor strain, which landed him on the IL in April, going into his fifth start on a rehab assignment.

“And then in between innings,” he explained, “I didn’t feel like I was recovering well. I just felt a little fatigued. Told the trainers, and we tried to get ahead of it. We’ll see what we’ve got when we get the MRI.”

As Gray’s manager, Davey Martinez, said on Tuesday, the 26-year-old right-hander will wait a bit before getting the MRI during the All-Star break.

“We wanted to give him some time,” Martinez said.

“So we’re just going to shut him down and not push this thing. So it’s just part of what they decided to do.”

Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images

“I’m a little concerned right now,” he admitted. “We got him ramped up, he looked good.

“Last outing, the velo wasn’t there. He said he just felt tired. His arm, he felt like he had nothing in there. So we’ll wait and see what happens.”

“He did everything he could,” Martinez added at another point in his pregame meeting with reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s just part of this game. It’s unfortunate. I feel bad that we had a setback, but hopefully everything works out well.”

LEFTOVER WOOD:

Davey Martinez described James Wood as a quiet but supremely talented 21-year-old with a bright future ahead of him in advance of Wood’s MLB debut on Monday night, but also told reporters the top prospect in their organization and No. 3 prospect in baseball according to Baseball America and MLB Pipeline was well-prepared to handle the attention he received in the lead-up to his debut.

“He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine,” Martinez said.

“You think about it, he’s had the spotlight for a while now. You look at ESPN, you look at all the polls, he’s in the Top 10 in the prospects, so he understands what comes with him playing here. My job is to kind of get him through it and help him understand what we’re trying to do, what he’s supposed to do, and go from there.”

Martinez bristled a bit when asked if the club, in need of an offensive boost, was putting a lot on Wood’s shoulders from the get-go.

“I’m not putting anything on his shoulders,” the seventh-year skipper said, adding his advice was for Wood to, “just fit right in. I told him today he’ll bat sixth, who knows where he’ll bat against a righty. But I just want him just to blend in, don’t be the guy, just be a guy.”

Martinez also objected when asked if the young outfielder was the face of the franchise and their rebuild now that he’s up and part of what the ballclub is building in D.C.

“We got another kid here who’s done pretty well and he’s only going to get better in CJ [Abrams],” Martinez said, pointing to the shortstop who, along with starter MacKenzie Gore, pitching prospect Jarlin Susana, and outfield prospect Robert Hassell III, came over to the Nationals with Wood in the Juan Soto (and Josh Bell) trade in 2022. “Having those two guys is definitely exciting, having these other guys that are going to come up soon is exciting. I don’t want him to feel like he’s the face of anything, I just want him to go play baseball.”

With Abrams, Gore, and now Wood up, Martinez was asked, are we closer to critical mass, and the next competitive roster they have been assembling via trades and the draft since the club kicked off its reboot at the trade deadline in 2021?

“We’re getting there, we’re getting there,” he said.

“Like I’ve said, this is just one of many guys we feel is going to help us at the major league level, but we’re really excited about the future and what James Wood and everybody else will bring.”