Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats shut out, 4-0 by Padres; DJ Herz returns; Juan Yepez streaking…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ loss to the Padres in the series opener on Tuesday…

DJ HERZ IS BACK:

Washington’s Nationals optioned 23-year-old southpaw DJ Herz to Triple-A Rochester earlier this month, after Herz’s seventh start in the majors and 17th start overall this season.

“He’s another young pitcher that we’re really trying to take care of and keep him healthy,” Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez explained.“We’ll give him a few days off here, but he’s got to be ready to pitch again. So, we’re going to look at the schedule, we’re going to get him going, and hopefully in the second half when that turn comes around again he can be ready to go.”

Asked what he wanted Herz to focus on before he returned to the rotation, Martinez said he wanted to see Herz, “… continue to do what he’s been doing, honestly.”

Herz finished to “first half” of the season with a 5.17 ERA, a 3.98 FIP, and a .271/.324/.457 line against in 31 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched.

“He was doing well when he was here, so he got a little bit of a breather,” Martinez said after Herz came back up to face the San Diego Padres last night in Nationals Park.

“I know he made one start down there, but he should be good to go. As we talk to him all the time, it’s about attacking the strike zone, working ahead. His stuff was good when he was here the first time, so let’s see if he can repeat that.”

Herz acquitted himself well in start No. 8 in the Nats’ rotation, holding the Padres to just two earned runs in five innings, both on solo home runs, with five hits allowed overall, two walks on the night, and four Ks from 21 batters faced. Herz had just nine swinging strikes, seven of them on his fastball, with 7 of 12 called strikes on his four-seamer as well.

“He was good. He was good,” Martinez said after a 4-0 loss in the series opener in D.C.

“Gave up two homers, but other than that he was really, really good. He attacked the zone. His stuff was good.”

Herz was at just 79 pitches after five when the manager went to the bullpen. How was he able to be so efficient?

“Just throwing strikes, getting ahead, utilizing all his pitches. Slider was good. Something we talked about him going down and kind of working on it a little bit. It was good.

“Fastball was really good, which was awesome. He did well.”

Unfortunately, the lefty didn’t receive any run support, with the Nationals’ hitters 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and five left on base in the loss, the 11th shutout loss this season for the club.

“We got a lot of early swings, didn’t work any good at-bats,” Martinez said in critiquing the offense.

“We hit some balls hard, but we just really couldn’t get any good swings off. We really — we swung the bats today, but we didn’t really work good at-bats.”

“We missed a lot of pitches we should have hit, and that was it,” he added. “We got pitches to hit, we just popped a lot up, rolled over a couple balls we should have just laid off of, but we were swinging the bats today.”

YEPEZ STILL STREAKING:

Juan Yepez put up a .263/.357/.438 line, “… with 15 doubles, 11 homers, 41 RBI[s], 40 walks, three stolen bases, and 38 runs scored in 74 games,” and 319 plate appearances for the [Triple-A Rochester] Red Wings as Washington’s Nationals noted in a press release when he was called up earlier this month. He’d hit in all 13 games in the majors going into last night’s series opener with San Diego.

Yepez’s hit streak, the club added, was, “… the longest by a [Nationals’] player (2005-pres.) to start his time with the club, per the Elias Sports Bureau,” and the 26-year-old slugger was, “… hitting .367 (18-for-49) with seven doubles, a homer, three RBI[s], six walks, and seven runs scored,” with a .436 OBP, and a .571 SLG (1.008 OPS) in that stretch.

Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Before Yepez went 1 for 4 with a double in the Nats’ win over Cincinnati Sunday afternoon in the nation’s capital, Washington’s skipper, Davey Martinez, talked to reporters about what the former St. Louis Cardinal (who was non-tendered by the Cardinals and signed by the Nationals this winter) was doing to take advantage of the latest opportunity in the majors.

“He’s been awesome. He was awesome all spring as well,” Martinez said. “The guy — he loves to play. He really does. You can see it. He wants to do really well. And he’s done really well, so the guys appreciate him because of how hard he plays the game. And he’s been great. He really has. Since I told him — when he didn’t make the team [out of Spring Training] he was a little bit disappointed. But I said, ‘Hey, you got a chance to help us at some point this year, and you need to go down and just continue to get better.”

The opportunity came when the club sent Joey Meneses down to Triple-A, hoping the veteran could find the swing and his power after a few lackluster months for the 1B/DH.

“[Yepez has] come up here, we put him in the lineup, and he moves the baseball,” the skipper said.

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

“He really tries — he’s got a good two-strike approach, he tries to stay in the middle of the field, doesn’t try to do too much, but he can hit. We’ve known that.

“A couple of years ago he had a really good year with St. Louis, and I liked the way he swung the bat.”

Yepez was 0 for 2 on Tuesday, before he doubled to start the seventh, extending his streak to 14-straight games, then added a second hit with two out in the ninth.

“Over those 14 games, he’s hitting .377 (20-for-53) with eight doubles, a homer, six RBI[s], six walks, and nine runs scored,” the Nationals noted after the game.

“[Yepez] hit the ball the ball really well again today, using the whole field,” Martinez said.