Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop one to forget, 5-0 to D-Backs + Davey Martinez on Willie Mays…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ series-opening loss to the D-backs in D.C.

NO MORE OFF-DAYS:

Davey Martinez’s club went into the series opener with the Arizona D-backs last night in the nation’s capital coming off a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins (outscoring the Fish 15-2), with wins in eight of their last nine games with a 14-9 record in their last 25 games going back to May 24th.

Going into the first of three with the Diamondbacks, however, the seventh-year manager did raise a note of caution when asked about keeping the momentum going.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Martinez said of the recent run, “the energy has been incredible, so I’ve got to try to rev them up today after a day off.

“We’ve got to get them going again, and we’re playing a team today that has tons of energy.

“So we got to get them going, make sure the energy is there today, but they’re playing well.”

Late last night, having watched his club struggle to do much of anything offensively against D-backs’ right-hander Slade Cecconi (6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 Ks, 70 P, 52 S), or against the Arizona bullpen, in what was a 5-0 loss, Martinez said it was a mix of good pitching, and the Nationals coming out flat.

“I said this earlier, it seems like every time we have a day off, we come out just a little bit flat,” the skipper said. “But today, I watched that kid [Cecconi] pitch today, and I went back and watched some of his pitches that we were taking. His ball really did have some good movement. I mean, some balls away that we were saying they were away, but they were over the plate, just coming back. Look, for me, I’m going to try to go back and flush this one. We’re playing well. I’m not going to try to dwell on it.

“Just come back and get ready to play tomorrow, and try to go 1-0 tomorrow.”

It didn’t help to have Jake Irvin struggle either, snapping a streak of 10-straight starts which saw the Nationals’ starters allow 2 ER or fewer.

Irvin gave up two runs early, with a leadoff walk to Corbin Carroll to start the game, then a two-run home run by Ketel Marte, who hit a knee-high curve just off the middle of the dish out to right-center for a 414 ft. blast which put the visitors up 2-0 after two batters. Irvin’s command wasn’t there, but he held the D-backs to two runs in the first, and he got inning-ending double plays in each of the next three scoreless innings before giving up a leadoff double, an RBI triple, and a sac fly in the first three at-bats in the fifth, 4-0.

“Can’t really pinpoint it,” Irvin said of what wasn’t working for him on Tuesday night.

“Just didn’t have great command of my fastball tonight, and it’s not a recipe for success, and put myself in some really bad counts.”

Asked if his issues were mechanical or something else, Irvin couldn’t say.

“I couldn’t tell you,” he said.

“Mentality-wise, everything felt pretty good, so I imagine it’s not something like that.

“It’s probably something mechanical, I’ll go back and look at that tomorrow, but overall just have to be more competitive than that.”

“He was flying open just a little bit,” Martinez said.

“We talked to him a little bit about just direction, so I thought the fifth inning he threw the ball a lot better, but he was down and he was behind a lot of hitters today.”

Cecconi, on the other hand, was efficient, and had the Nationals off-balance all night, with just five swinging strikes on the night, but 21 called strikes, 16 on his fastball, which sat 93+ and got up to 96+.

Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

“He attacked the strike zone, but he had good movement on his fastball,” Martinez said.

“He was location his fastball really well, it looked like we really just couldn’t pull the trigger on some of his fastballs, so he pitched well, we just couldn’t get nothing going offensively.”

“He was around the plate all night long, so we had to try to be a little bit aggressive, try to get the ball up, but like I said, his stuff was good today.”

Jesse Winker, who had two of the Nationals’ four hits on the night, (along with CJ Abrams, who extended an 11-game hit streak with the first of his two hits in the loss), said Cecconi was really good.

“He was really good. Really good fastball, really good changeup. The fastball was exploding and the changeup was moving a ton. He did really well tonight.”

“He was commanding both sides, up and down,” Winker added. “He’s very talented, and he had a great night tonight, so hats off to him.”

Winker didn’t seem too concerned about the offense continuing to struggle like they did on Tuesday night.

“We’re a really good offense, so it’s really just going to be just keep doing what we’ve been doing. They all pitched really well. That happens in this league, so you have to tip your cap and come back out tomorrow and hopefully we have a better day,” Winker said.

“We just got to come back tomorrow,” Martinez told reporters.

“We’re going to be aggressive in the zone, but today, early on we didn’t chase, he just came after us.

“But we got to be aggressive in the zone, and like I’ve said, stay in the middle of the field, and try to get something going, just got to get guys on base.”

SAY HEY:

The San Francisco Giants announced last night Willie Mays “passed away peacefully” on Tuesday afternoon, at the age of 93 (1931-2024).

Mays, whose pro career began in 1948 with the Negro American League’s Birmingham Black Barons, began his MLB career with the then-New York Giants, in 1951. Two years into his 23-year career, he served in the military (1953), before returning to the Giants in ‘54, and going with the franchise to San Francisco in 1958.

The Hall of Famer put up a .301/.384/.557 line with 525 doubles and 660 home runs in 3005 career games, wrapping his career up with two seasons with the New York Mets in 1972-’73.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979.

Mays crossed paths with Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez during the skipper’s playing days in San Francisco, and Martinez talked last night about the impact Mays had.

“I’ve know Willie — I was with the Giants, he was over in Spring Training with us and was coaching, and just a really great man. What he meant to baseball was unbelievable.

“He taught me a lot about playing the outfield when I was there, so my condolences go out to his family, and all the baseball world. Hall of Famer, and what he did for this game, and just what he did for the fans of San Francisco. He meant a lot to the Bay Area, he really did. Tremendous person. Really was — a tremendous person. So it’s sad. Really sad.”