Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ 7-4 loss to the Pirates in the nation’s capital…
GRAY’S FIRST HOME START:
“[My biggest takeaway is] getting the responsibility of being able to go out there and try to put the team in a good position from Game 1,” Josiah Gray told reporters, as quoted by MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato, after he went four innings for the Nationals on Opening Day, giving up seven runs on eight hits (two of the homers) and two walks in what ended up an 8-2 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati.
“I failed to do that today.”
“Overall, look, it was his first Opening Day,” manager Davey Martinez said as he discussed Gray’s initial outing of the 2024 campaign.
“We get him settled down — walked two guys, which is not bad. One was a borderline call. But we got to put this one behind us.”
Martinez said he wanted to see Gray take more of an aggressive approach going forward.
“He’s got to attack,” Martinez said. “He’s got to stay in attack mode. He’s got good stuff. So, I’m not down on him by any means. It’s just one day. I know he’ll come back strong his next outing. I told him already, ‘Hey, put this one behind you, learn from it, and let’s move on.”
“It’s easy to look at the damage, and you kind of chalk it up as, ‘It is what it is,’ the starter said.
“I’ve just got to be better next time.”
Martinez said before start No. 2 last night, in the series finale with Pittsburgh’s Pirates, that Gray’s ability to move on from bad starts is one of the signs of maturity he’s seen from the start over the years.
“He absolutely has gotten way better, he really has,” Martinez said. “And when I talk about his maturity-level has been so much better. And I saw it even the first game. He went out there and for two innings he struggled, he knew his pitch count was up he went out there in the fourth inning and pitched really well that inning. And that to me shows me that he can put those innings behind and try to get three outs here.
Rowdy drives in 2️⃣ pic.twitter.com/Wa8KbLpqMM
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 4, 2024
“So, I told him after he came out of the game, I said, ‘Just build off of that last inning. That was really good. Understand who you are.’ He just needs to understand that he’s got to throw his fastball. He can’t fall in love with the slider. The slider is a great a pitch, don’t get me wrong, but the fastball is definitely going to help me, and his fastball has been really good. He needs to establish his fastball, attack the zone, stay in the zone, and then everything else will play. I’m looking forward to seeing how he bounces back today.”
Gray struggled again though, to throw strikes and to retire batters early, as the first three batters reached base via single, double, and walk, and a sac fly made it 1-0 Pirates early.
Another walk, a two-run single, and another sac fly made it a 4-0 game in the first, and the Nats’ starter was up to 33 pitches after one inning in what ended up a 4 1⁄3-inning, 96-pitch outing in which he gave up seven hits, three walks, and six earned runs, taking the L in the 7-4 loss.
Gray threw 58 of 96 pitches for strikes, did get 11 swinging and 11 called strikes, but he got into an early hole the club couldn’t climb out of.
“He was missing. His direction is kind of a little off,” Martinez said after the game.
“But the first inning he got ahead of the first three batters, and just couldn’t put them away. They hit some pretty good pitches. Nothing really hard. But that’s kind of how it all starts. He gave up another run and then he kind of settled down a little bit, but for me it’s the 0-2s to the 3-2s. If he wants to pitch deep into games we got to get him to finish in 3-4 pitches or less. That’s the key.”
Martinez said all the arm-side misses reporters noticed were a result of Gray opening up in his delivery.
“He’s just opening up. I watch his head fly open. His direction. Everything follows your head. So when your head starts flying open, he’s going to go one way and the ball leaks arm-side. So we got to get his direction back and more consistent.”
How hard a fix is that?
“We’ll work on it in the bullpen,” he said.
“A lot of times, when things start unraveling, they start speeding up, and that’s when you’ve got to take a deep breath and slow things down a little bit and understand what you need to do to get back in that groove.”
ROBLES’S HAMMY:
Victor Robles walked for the third time in five plate appearances the first time up to the plate Wednesday night, then went first to third on a single by CJ Abrams, but as Robles made his way around the bases he pulled something.
Robles left the game for a pinch runner at that point, and Nats’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters after the game it was a hamstring issue.
“Vic hurt his left hammy,” Martinez said.
“He’s going to get an MRI tomorrow so we’ll know more tomorrow.”
Asked if it was serious enough for Robles to end up on the IL, Martinez said he did not know, but the outfielder told him he “felt it pretty good.” With Robles’s game, it might be an issue.
Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images
“Because of what he does,” Martinez said, “I don’t want to assume anything, but he said he felt it pretty good. So, we’ll see what the MRI says tomorrow, and then we’ll go from there.”
Before last night’s game, the club called up Jacob Young and placed Robles on the 10-Day IL.
“He’s got a strain of his left hamstring, so we placed him on the IL. Jacob is here. So he’ll play center field for us today,” skipper Davey Martinez told reporters in his pregame press conference on Thursday.
The injury, he said, was particularly unwelcome considering all the time Robles missed with a back issue which limited him to 36 games last season.
“It stinks about Vic,” Martinez said.
“I mean, he worked really hard to get back. Hopefully we can get him back soon, but it’s going to take him some time. He’s got to build some strength back up there. Got to go through the running process. I feel bad, because he’s just worked so hard to get back and he was in a good place. He was playing well. He was right where he needed to be. A lot of the things we talked about with him over the years he was finally starting to get. But it’s not the end-all. He’ll be back.
“And hopefully they’ll get that hamstring strong again and then he’ll be back playing center field.”
Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports
“Obviously it saddens me, especially because I put so much effort into keeping my body physically fit,” Robles said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.
“But a lot of times it’s out of our control, out of our hands. All I can do is strengthen it as best as possible, get ready and come back as soon as I can.”
With the way Robles plays the game, Martinez said, the club had no choice but to send him to the IL until he can heal up.
“Especially with him, because his legs mean so much to him. Even yesterday, when I saw him out there and he was kind of grimacing a little bit, he still said: ‘I think I can go.’ And I go, ‘No, we’re not going to do that. Let’s see what’s going on and hopefully it’s nothing.’ But it turned out to be something, so we’ll give him some time and hopefully he’ll heal fast and we’ll get him back out there.”