Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats lose to Orioles, 7-6, in extras; split two-game set in D.C.

Notes and quotes from the second of two with the Orioles in Nationals Park…

EXTRAS WITH THE O’S:

Mitchell Parker didn’t give up a home run in his first four starts in the majors, going 21 ¹⁄₃ in those starts without giving up a long ball. He got bit twice last night in Nationals Park, with both Orioles’ outfielder Anthony Santander (in the 4th) and shortstop Gunnar Henderson (in the 6th), taking Washington’s rookie left-hander deep for solo shots which put Baltimore up 2-1 before they added a run off of reliever Robert Garcia in the seventh, 3-1 O’s.

Davey Martinez’s boys never quit though, and they staged another comeback in the ninth, with Eddie Rosario homering off of closer Craig Kimbrel with two out in the inning, 3-2, to keep the game going for Trey Lipscomb and Jacob Young, both of whom walked, before the O’s went to their last left-hander, Keegan Akin, against CJ Abrams, and Abrams lined an RBI single to right field to drive in the tying run and eventually send it to extras, 3-3.

Ryan Mountcastle hit a two-run home run off Hunter Harvey to put the Orioles up 5-3 in the top of the 11th, but the home team rallied to tie it up in the bottom of the inning with a ground-rule double by Ildemaro Vargas and sac fly by Young knotting things up once again, 5-5.

The O’s scored two with Jordan Weems on the mound for the Nationals in the top of the 12th, 7-5…

Luis García, Jr. lined a leadoff RBI double to right field to drive in the Nationals’ free runner in the home-half of the 12th, 7-6, but García, Jr. was stranded three outs later as the Orioles earned a split of the two-game set with a one-run win.

“They battled all night long,” Martinez said after the loss, praising his club’s effort all night.

“To me that showed unbelievable character, it really does. We fell short, yeah, but they put two on, we come back, they put two on, we come back, that says a lot about this ballclub.

“Like I said, it was beautiful, it really was, we fell short, but we keep playing like that we’re going to win a lot of baseball games, so I’m really proud of the way the boys fought today.”

While obviously unhappy they lost in the end, Martinez was pleased with the effort and a split with the AL East leading O’s.

“The Orioles came in here pretty hot, right?” Martinez said. “They’re one of the best teams in baseball, they’ve got one of the best records, we could have easily — they could have easily just said, ‘Hey, we’re down 3-1.’ We don’t do that, we keep fighting. And you saw it tonight. That should be a pretty good wakeup call for those guys that we can play with anybody.

“So, we’re going to take a day off tomorrow and rest, hopefully these guys will sleep, and come back Friday and try to go 1-0 again.”

ROBLES RETURNS; NATS CAUSING HAVOC:

Victor Robles suffered a left hamstring strain back on April 3rd, four games into the 2024 campaign, (after he was limited to just 36 games and 126 plate appearances in 2023 over which the soon-to-turn-27-year-old outfielder had a .299/.385/.364 line at the plate) by a lower back issue.

Once he returned to action, Robles went to Triple-Rochester, where he played six games, (.350/.435/.500, a double, and a triple in 23 PAs), before he was reinstated from the IL on Tuesday afternoon. He did not start in his first game back, however.

“Give him a day to get his feet wet,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez explained before the first of two with the Orioles in D.C. this week, “… plus too, I talked to him about playing some right field as well, so he’s going to go out there today, take some fly balls in right field and I told him he’d come off the bench today.”

Apparently outfielder Jacob Young’s play in Robles’s absence (a .300/.364/.375 line, six doubles, five walks, 12 stolen bases in 13 attempts) earned him the opportunity to stay in the lineup for a while.

Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images

“Look, Jacob is doing really well,” Martinez said in his pregame presser on Tuesday. “We know that, so I have to find ways to play Vic, play Jacob, and also play [Eddie] Rosario.”

“I’ll see what the matchups are like,” the skipper said of his plans going forward.

“Vic, before he got hurt last year, he was swinging the bat well. This year, he was swinging the bat well. So I definitely want to give him the opportunity to play. It’s not just going to be a straight kind of platoon thing.

“We’ll match him up against some righties, play against some lefties. The biggest thing is to kind of keep him healthy, because we’ve struggled over the last year and a half trying to stay on the field. So I just want to keep him healthy for a while.”

Getting both Robles and Young out there at the same time, Martinez said, could be something to see when it comes to what they could offer the Nationals’ lineup.

“It will be another guy that can cause havoc for us on the bases,” Martinez explained. “It will be nice to see those guys play together, and like I said, Vic could play some right field. He played down in Rochester a little bit down there, so I just want to get him used to playing it here, so he’s going to get some fly balls. Having them both in the lineup with CJ [Abrams] and some of the other guys who can run a little bit definitely will cause a little havoc.”

STICKING TO THE PLAN:

James Wood, who hit two home runs in Wednesday’s game with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, now has four home runs on the year with the Nationals’ top minor league affiliate, and the No. 2 ranked prospect in Washington’s system (according to MLB Pipeline’s scouts) is now hitting .339 with a .973 OPS on the year in 31 games. So, when will the Nats bring the 2021 2nd Round pick (by the Padres; acquired by the Nationals in the Juan Soto deal in ‘22), up to the majors to make his MLB debut?

“I know he hit two home runs, and that’s great,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez said in his pregame presser before Wednesday night’s game. “He’s doing well, but there is a plan, and we’re going to do everything we can to stick to that plan, we really are. I mean, he needs to get a bunch of at-bats, he needs to learn some different things, we want him to get better against left-handed pitching, we want him to understand the baserunning stuff, all that stuff. So he’s striking out 33% of the time against lefties. So we really want him to work on that. I don’t want to bring him up here and platoon him. That’s for sure. He needs to play every day. But he’s doing well, and this is part of the process. I can be honest with you: I don’t want to be a fan, but if I was a fan, I can’t wait till he comes up here too. It’s going to be fun, but we got to be smart about it.”

There is another wave of talent in the system knocking on the door, and eventually they’ll hopefully kick the door down and force the club’s hand, and no one, Martinez said, is any more excited about that future than the manager himself.

“I’m really excited about our future, really. When these guys all come up and they’re playing the way we think we’re capable of playing — you think we’re exciting now, huh, we’re going to be really exciting.”