Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats and Padres get heated; benches clear; Friars win, 9-7…

Notes and quotes from an emotional game between the Nationals and Padres…

GORE VS PROFAR:

The end of the series opener in San Diego bled into the second of three this week in Petco Park.

Jurickson Profar, who hit a walk-off winner, took exception to the fact Washington walked Luis Arraez in front of him, loading the bases in extras before the single. He didn’t like the fact that Hunter Harvey came up and in with an 0-2 pitch either, and he celebrated his hit.

Like, celebrated celebrated.

“I felt disrespected,” Profar said with a smile of the IBB in front of him. But he meant it.

And the emotion he felt and showed following the game winning hit didn’t sit well with his opponents.

“It was two things,” Jurickson explained, “the walk, and then this pitch up and in, up to my face, so that pumped me up a lot.”

The first time he stepped in on Tuesday night, catcher Keibert Ruiz got in his face, poked him in the chest, and got heated when Manny Machado stepped into the mix. Things got heated. Both benches and bullpens cleared, but it was mostly jawing, warnings but there were no ejections.

Once order was restored, MacKenzie Gore … hit Profar in the foot with what Gameday says was a fastball. Intentional or not, Gore wasn’t ejected so … (though Padres’ skipper Mike Shildt was, when he came out wondering why there was no ejection after the warnings), so … it would have been a good idea not to do it if you were just going to leave a fastball up and in to Manny Machado in the next at-bat, on the next pitch, actually, which Machado hit 393 ft to left-center for a two-run shot and a 2-0 lead.

Cue another “over-the-top” celebration (though it’s hard to complain with the big hat homer thing and all hip wiggling going on in D.C. these days) and the inevitable questions about if Gore let the emotions of the moment get to him and stuff. [ed. note – “Don’t say ‘and stuff.’”]

Profar, of course, went on to hit a grand slam later in the game, in what ended up a 9-7 win for the home team. That probably counts as having the last word. Though there’s one more to be played in Petco tomorrow, so…

“For me,” Nats’ manager Davey Martinez said in his post game press conference Tuesday night, “… it was a good way to send a message, like, ‘Hey, you hit the ball, you won the game, but we’re not going to tolerate that.’”

Not going to tolerate that?

“I’ll just leave it at that,” Martinez said.

As for Gore’s outing overall (5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 94 P, 10 swinging strikes, 14 called strikes, 10 on his curveball)?

“He was okay, he was okay,” Martinez said, “… he had a little bit of struggles, but he kept us in the ballgame. But … I think when you have to sit around like that like he did that first inning kind of slowed him down a little bit, but he hung in there and his pitch count got up there, so we had to get him out.”

TRADE TALK:

On August 2nd 2022, the Nationals made a franchise-altering trade with the Padres, when they sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego. Coming back to Washington in the deal?:

MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, James Wood, Robert Hassell III, and Jarlin Susana.

Coming up on two years later, Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez was asked on Tuesday night for his thoughts on how the deal worked out in hindsight.

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

“Yeah, you know, look, we lost a really good player [in Soto], but we gained a bunch of good players, which is fantastic,” Martinez told reporters. “So, we’re doing well because those guys [Gore and Abrams] are here helping us in the big leagues, and we’re going to get better when the other guys come. So, we’re excited about. I’m excited about the guys that we have, as you guys know, I love Juan, and I always wish him well, but these guys have been tremendous, and I love these guys just as much too. But it was a really good trade for us. We absolutely love CJ, MacKenzie, Wood’s doing well, Hassell will be — as soon as he gets healthy again he’ll start playing again, and he’s another guy that we look forward to being up here one day, so things are looking good.”

HAROLD RAMÍREZ IS HERE:

Tampa Bay’s Rays DFA’d 29-year-old slugger Harold Ramìrez after trying to trade the veteran this winter, this spring, and again this month — after he was designated for assignment.

Ramìrez put up a .300/.337/.411 line, 46 doubles, and 19 home runs in three seasons, 290 games, and 1,038 plate appearances for Tampa Bay between 2022-2024, but he had just three doubles and one home run in 49 games and 171 PAs before the Rays DFA’d him and the Nationals signed him, sending him first down to Triple-A Rochester to get him ABs and prepare him for a return to the majors following some time off.

“We picked up Harold. So he was down with us in Rochester, trying to get him going,” Nats’ manager Davey Martinez explained after the Nationals called Ramírez up before the series opener in San Diego on Monday. “He started swinging the bat really well. We need a right-handed hitter, you know, and he’s a veteran guy that hits lefties really well. So he’s going to get an opportunity to definitely play against lefties. And also if he starts swinging the bat, we could use him in our lineup.”

“We wanted to bring him in today. He’ll pinch-hit today for us. But get him acclimated and get him in as soon as possible.”

Ramírez went 9 for 24 (.375/.516/.417) in seven games and 31 PAs at Triple-A in the Nationals’ system, and does have a solid .305/.305/.373 line vs LHPs this season (with a .243/.268/.262 line vs RHPs).

The Nationals think he can contribute to their cause going forward.

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

“I expect him to do what he did last year for Tampa,” Martinez said when asked what the club expected to get from the right-handed bat. “He had a really good year last year. He’s a really good hitter. I think he was hitting .270 when they let him go. So like I said, we could use that bat and we definitely could use him against left-handed pitching.”

Martinez said they also think he’ll be a positive veteran influence on the Nationals’ younger players.

“He’s a super good teammate, really is,” the skipper said. “[He] loves to play the game. He’s a competitor, and we love that about him. We did our due diligence before he got let go, and the other teams had nothing but great things to say about him. But he’s a really good teammate. I know when he was down there [at Triple-A], I talked to some of the coaches down there, and they said this guy is unbelievable. He was helping all our young players, teaching them little things about hitting, and I said, ‘You know, we could use that here as well,’ so we’re looking forward to getting him out there.”