Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats swept by Padres with 8-5 loss in finale; series to forget…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals and Padres’ series finale in Petco Park…

HERZ VS SDP:

DJ Herz was up to 33 pitches in the fourth and 76 pitches overall in 3 ²⁄₃ innings in Coors Field when Davey Martinez decided to bring an end to the 23-year-old lefty’s fourth start pitching in the majors.

“DJ got a little tired there at the end,” the Nats’ manager explained.

“He threw 30-something pitches that inning, and he started losing his mechanics a little bit so we had to get him out.”

Herz gave up seven hits, three of them home runs, and four runs, three of them earned, in the abbreviated outing, with five Ks, 12 swinging strikes (nine of them on his four-seamer), and 12 called strikes (nine on his fastball). He took some positives from the outing, notably the absence of any walks in his line.

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

“I thought it was good for the most part. I’m happy about the amount of strikes, and no walks again,” Herz said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“Right after he came out of the game, I said: ‘You should be proud of yourself,’” Martinez told reporters.

“‘It ain’t easy to pitch here. It gets everybody. This is your first time out here. But you did great.’ He pounded the strike zone like we asked him to.

“In this ballpark, guys are going to hit. He did really well.”

Pitching at 72’ feet above sea level (vs 5,200’ last time out), Herz struggled with his fastball command in the series finale in Petco Park on Wednesday, working around a two-out single in the first, then giving up a one-out single and a two-out, two-run home run in the second, with Jackson Merrill lining a 2-1 fastball up in the zone to center before Kyle Higashioka hit a 1-1 changeup up in the zone 386 ft. to left field for a 2-0 lead early.

A leadoff double, single, and wild pitch with a runner on third made it 3-0 Padres, and then Jurickson Profar hit a one-out RBI single to make it 4-0 on Herz’s 66th and final pitch of the game.

Herz got just three swinging strikes on the day, though he did get 12 called strikes, spread out 5-4-3 on his fastball, cutter, and changeup, respectively.

“I think I just got to be better at executing pitches when I’m getting ahead,” Herz said of his own outing, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco. “I think I’m just leaving some off-speed pitches too much middle-middle and they’re taking advantage of it right now. I think just executing is the big thing.”

“DJ’s fastball command was a little off,” his manager said after what ended up a 9-5 loss to the Padres (who swept the three-game set). “He threw a lot more changeups because he couldn’t command his fastball. But he went out and competed and gave us everything he had. Just every day he goes out there it’s a learning process.

“We’ll get him back and he’ll be ready to go in another five days.”

On the other side, Dylan Cease dominated Nationals’ hitters, taking a no-hitter through 4 ²⁄₃ innings, and allowing just one hit overall in seven innings in which he walked two but struck out nine, throwing 102 pitches, 65 for strikes, with 16 swinging and 18 called strikes overall.

“Cease was really, really good,” Martinez said when asked about the offense struggling in the third of three with the Padres. “Our guys they couldn’t really pick up the slider. He was very effective. He had the sweeper, slider — and he had it going on today. So it was tough. A tough day offensively. And then when they got him out of the game and we started swinging the bats a little bit better. We just got to forget about this series. We got a day off in Tampa. Hope the guys enjoy. Let’s come ready to play again and have a good weekend.”

MENESES WITH RISP:

Though he’s put up a .243/.297/.323 line overall in 68 games and 279 plate appearances this season, Joey Meneses has still hit with runners in scoring position as he has (22 for 67, .328/.393/.433), including three RBI hits in Monday’s loss to the Padres. So far in the majors, the 32-year-old middle-of-the-order bat has a .327/.372/.456 line in 333 PAs with RISP.

“As of late he’s been tremendous,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters in his pregame press conference on Tuesday, with the club backing him up with numbers in their pregame notes:

“[Meneses is] … hitting .375 (18-for-48) with 29 RBI w/RISP since April 25…Was 4-for-19 (.211) w/RISP to start season.”

“He’s a guy that we’ve counted on over the last year and a half to drive in a bunch of runs for us, and once again, he’s doing really well,” Martinez added. “I know he gets frustrated sometimes because he wants to hit for more power. We have to talk to him about just, ‘Hey, when you get guys in scoring position, you’re the one guy that we really feel they can drive him in, and he’s done a great job with that. I think he leads our team or up there in RBIs, and that’s great. I would like for him to hit for power, but I’m not going to push the envelope with that … because he’s a guy, like I said, we want him to drive in those runs for us when those guys get on base in front of him.”

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

Going into the 2nd of 3 with the Padres in Petco, Meneses, the Nationals noted, “… [had] hit safely in 11 of his last 13 G: 15-for-46 (.326) with 4 2B, HR, 10 RBI[s], 3 BB, 6 R … Last 28 G: .286/.321/.418, 7 2B, 2 HR, 19 RBI, 5 BB, HBP, 11 R.”

Though he hasn’t hit for the power did in his breakout season in 2022, or even last season, it isn’t a big concern for Meneses’s manager, who doesn’t want to see the slugger swinging for the fences, because when does he gets out of whack at the plate.

“He gets out on his front side,” Martinez explained. “A lot of times that’s where the ground balls come from, or he jams himself, and I don’t want him to do that. He’s really good when he stays in the middle of the field. On occasion he’s going to run into one, but I told him, I said, ‘You remember when you first came in you hit a bunch of home runs to right-center field,’ I said, ‘You’re the one trying to pull the ball. The pulling will come, but when you’re really good you stay behind the baseball, about as good as anybody, and you use your hands. And he’s getting back to that. That ball he drove yesterday he smoked it.”