Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats lose in extras; 3-2 on error by CJ Abrams…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ loss to the Braves in the series opener in Truist Park..

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“We played well,” Davey Martinez said in his post game presser following Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Braves in the first game of the three-game series for the Nationals in Truist Park.

“We played really well, until the last play of the game.”

Eduardo Salazar, in his second inning of work, after a 1-2-3 ninth, got a ground ball out for the first out of the 10th, in a 2-2 game which ended when the free runner moved to third on the first out, then scored on a throwing error by CJ Abrams on a two-out ground ball to short on which Abrams skipped a low throw Juan Yepez couldn’t scoop out of the dirt at first.

“It sucks. We all fought. It came down to the wire, extra innings,” Abrams said.

“We wanted to continue to fight, and it just ended like that.”

The final throw, Abrams said, “It was low. I’ve just just got to make a better throw, in that situation, especially. Maybe take a little more time. I think I had more than I thought, but yeah, just got to make a better throw.”

“He just tried to get too quick and threw it into the ground,” Martinez told reporters.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE:

MacKenzie Gore gave up a home run on the second pitch he threw, a slider up to Michael Harris II, who hit it 410 ft out to center field in Atlanta.

It was, however, the only run Gore allowed in his six innings of work, over which threw 88 pitches, 61 for strikes.

He struck out four without walking a batter, and got a total of 13 swinging strikes, and 13 called strikes (10 on his fastball).

“He was really good tonight,” Davey Martinez said. “Fastballs, used his fastball down, got it up when he needed to. His curveball was really good, threw some good changeups, but he was really good. He was attacking the strike zone, and he kept us in the game. He pitched really well.”

Gore pointed to the lack of walks as a key to his success.

“That was important,” he said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman:

“Walks can really hurt you, especially when they come in bunches. There’s always situations in a game where you don’t want to give in and throw a cookie, but I thought when we got in certain counts tonight, we went after guys and we were able to put them away.”

“He stayed in the moment today really well,” Martinez said of Gore getting past the leadoff home run in the first, and working around a single and double which put two on for Atlanta in the bottom of the second inning before he stranded them both.

He stranded a one-out single in the fourth, a one-out, ground-rule double in the fifth, and leadoff and two-out singles in the sixth before he was done for the night.

“He didn’t get frustrated with the leadoff homer,” Martinez said. “Big outs with runners on second and third. We played defense behind him too, that was key, but he threw the ball fantastic.”

CALL HELPED OFF:

Alex Call charged in behind Ildemaro Vargas on an inning-ending pop to the Nats’ second baseman, and Call fell to the outfield grass in obvious discomfort. He was checked on and eventually taken off the field on a cart.

“He was running hard, he just fell,” Davey Martinez said after the loss. “He heard something pop in his foot, so he’s getting an MRI. I don’t know what it is yet. He’s out getting an MRI, so I’ll know more tomorrow.”

Call talked to reporters too:

Martinez was asked if the planned promotion of Dylan Crews, reportedly for the first game of the Nationals’ series with the New York Yankees in D.C. on Monday, might be moved up, given the injury to Call.

“I don’t know that yet,” Martinez said. “I’ve got to talk to [GM Mike Rizzo].”

Hopefully, Call can avoid missing significant time, but it seemed serious in the moment.

Martinez saw Call fall, but he got concerned when he didn’t pop back up.

“When he didn’t come up, I thought, ‘Oh no.’

“We went out there and he couldn’t put any pressure on it, so we called for the cart.

“Hopefully he’s okay. Like I said, he’s getting an MRI, we’ll see what happens after.”

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