Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats and Cards play one more today; CJ Abrams an All-Star + Brady House update…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ big Sunday news…

HERZ’S SUNDAY:

“He’s really come a long way,” Nationals’ GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo told The Spots Junkies this past Wednesday of the growth he’s seen from DJ Herz since he was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in the Jeimer Candelario trade at the deadline in 2023

“Our development people have done a great job with him. This was a guy who always struck out people at the Double-A level, but walked a lot of guys, so we’ve really pounded into all these pitchers that we need strikes, we need to be aggressive in the strike zone and really attack the hitters.”

Herz finished his sixth start in the majors (a 5 ²⁄₃ inning, 10-K outing against the NY Mets in D.C. last week), with a 4.67 ERA, a 4.21 FIP, seven walks (2.33 BB/9), 37 Ks (12.33 K/9), and a .268/.317/.464 line against in 27 innings as part of the big league rotation since coming up to make his MLB debut on June 4th.

His seventh outing was a less-than-stellar start at home against the St. Louis Cardinals in an 8-3 loss. Herz gave up five hits, two walks, and five runs (four earned), striking out four, with 22 of his 102 pitches in 4 ¹⁄₃ IP fouled off, bringing a quick end to an abbreviated outing.

The first run Herz allowed scored after a two-out walk extended the Cards’ second inning, with Brandon Donovan then coming around to score, when James Wood, Trey Lipscomb, and CJ Abrams converged on the fly to short left off Nolan Gorman’s bat, but let it drop in for a gift of an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.

• Davey Martinez post game on play?: “[Wood] was looking at the infielders. He needs to come run. I mean, outfielders take precedence over infielders. He needs to come just catch the ball.”

Gorman scored on an RBI single by Dylan Carlson in the next at-bat, 2-0, then drove in the third run of the game for the home team in the fourth, after the Nationals had rallied to tie things up, 3-2, and the runners he left on (a one-out walk and ROE in the fourth) scored to make it five total (four earned).

In the end it was the high pitch count which led to Herz’s early exit.

“He had two innings, one was 29 pitches, and one 32 pitches,” Martinez explained after the loss, “ … so he gave us everything he had, but he had 102 pitches in four innings, which we stretched him out as much as we can. He got ahead, just the put-away pitch wasn’t there. A lot of foul balls today.

“We should have caught a fly ball,” he said of the ball that fell into left field, “but then again, he walked the [batter with two outs], a lefty, and that started the whole mess there.”

The difference for the young start between his last (dominant) outing and the one against the Cardinals on Sunday?

“Just a lot of foul balls, a lot of foul balls. I know he tried to go up a couple times and misses up, I thought his slider was a little bit better today, which is kind of nice, but like I said, he built some big counts, a lot of 2-2s, 3-2s, but that’s something that it’s a learning process for these guys to put away guys in less than three pitches. He was doing really well at it, this time they fouled a lot of balls off.”

Martinez’s ballclub scored three runs on Cards’ starter Kyle Gibson, but that was it in the third of four in Nationals Park, and they were 2 for 6 with runners in scoring position and nine left on in the loss.

“Overall we had 11 hits, we just couldn’t get that big hit with guys on base today,” Martinez said. “We’ll come back tomorrow.

“I honestly like the way we’re swinging the bat. We hit some balls hard. Just we’ve got to capitalize when we get bases loaded, get some guys on in scoring position, and try to knock in some runs.”

The teams have split the first two. The series will be decided this afternoon.

“We got a chance to tie the series tomorrow, so let’s go 1-0 tomorrow,” Martinez said.

CJ IN THE ASG:

Davey Martinez talked at length about the run CJ Abrams has been on this month before the shortstop was named an All-Star on Sunday for the first time in his career.

Abrams, 23, bounced back from a .205/.216/.304 month of May with a .374/.464/.663 June, which followed a .295/.373/.619 start to the season.

In a press release on his All-Star nod, the Nationals noted that Abrams, “… put up some of the best numbers across National League shortstops in the first half of the 2024 season, leading the group with a .506 slugging percentage. He ranked second in extra-base hits (40), OPS (.859), RBI[s] (46), and triples (5).

“Advanced metrics, according to Baseball-Reference.com placed him second in wins above replacement (3.5) and OPS+ (146), and he ranked second in wRC+ (138), according to FanGraphs.com.”

Abrams, who walked 32 times in 151 games and 614 plate appearances last season, is up to 29 in 81 games and 361 PAs this year, which Martinez said is at least in part a result of all of the work the shortstop and the team’s coaches have put in, to get him focused on his plate discipline.

“It’s based on conversations every day with him about know thyself, right?” Martinez said.

“Know what balls you hit hard, know what balls you want to swing at, know your opposing pitcher, and what he’s trying to do to you. The key for him is really accepting his walks. He can hit, and he hits the ball really hard when the ball is in the strike zone, when he gets the ball up in the zone, so that’s something that is talked about every day with him, with just, ‘Hey, swing at strikes, and accept your walks,’ and when he does that he’s been doing really, really well.”

Well enough to earn a spot on the NL’s roster in the 94th Fall Classic.

ALSO THIS:

BONUS QUOTE:

Davey Martinez on 2021 1st Round pick Brad House’s promotion to Triple-A: “The big thing with him now is, again, teaching him to accept his walks, to hit the ball in the zone. He hits the ball really hard, and he’s been hitting the ball hard. And just kind of doing the little things every day. Be more consistent. When you get to Triple-A, it’s about consistency. That’s going to help you up here in the major leagues. I’ll definitely, we’ll definitely keep an eye on him. We’ll have reports on him now every day. And we’ll see where he’s at. But he’s there. He’s knocking on the door. So he’s just another one of those guys we feel like can help us up here in the big leagues.”