Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats swept in Philly; take 5-game losing streak into homestand…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ loss to the Phillies in the series finale in CBP on Sunday…

SWEPT IN PHILLY:

Those heady days (or that day, really) of having a .500 ballclub in D.C. seems like a lovely, but distant, memory at this point, though it was just five games back. But after the three-game sweep at the hands of the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park, the Nationals have now lost five straight overall, falling to 20-25 with an 11-5 loss in the series finale in Philadelphia.

It started out okay on Sunday, with Trevor Williams giving up two runs early, before the Nats, with a two-run home run by Eddie Rosario in the fourth, tied things up at 2-2, and even took the lead in the fifth, when Jesse Winker homered off Philies’ starter Aaron Nola, but the Phils tied it up and took the lead in the fifth, then kept scoring as Nola settled in for seven strong in which he gave up just two hits, three walks, and three runs, two earned.

The loss wrapped up a 2-7 road trip to Boston, Chicago, and the City of Brotherly Love, but now it’s back home for a series with the Minnesota Twins in the nation’s capital.

“Towards the end there we started swinging the bats a little better just by getting the ball in the zone,” Martinez said after the third loss in three with the Phillies.

“Once again, we got to stop chasing. When we do that, we hit the ball well,” he added.

“We had two guys hit a couple home runs today, so just got to start capitalizing on when we get guys on base. Nola was good again, he’s a tough opponent. He kept us off-balance for most of the day, but we got to come back tomorrow. We got another good team coming in tomorrow, and we’ll just try to go 1-0 tomorrow.”

How will his team react to being back home after a tough road trip?

“We get to go back home after a long road trip and play in front of our fans, so that should motivate the players some,” Martinez told reporters. “But like I said, we just got to go back and focus on doing the little things. The more we do that we’re really competitive. And we will do that. These guys don’t give up, they play hard. So we’ll get back, we’ll start winning some games again and we’ll make it interesting.”

It wasn’t all bad on Sunday.

“I saw some really positive things,” Martinez said.

“Trevor gave us everything he had. The outfield play was pretty good. Jacob [Young] made a really nice play. Winker made a couple of nice plays.”

And the Nationals did score five runs, after they were shut out twice on the trip, and scored two runs or fewer in 5 of 9 games. What did he see from the hitters, especially later on?

“The at-bats, getting balls in the zone, staying in the middle of the field, not chasing. We started hitting the ball well. We got to start like that. We have to start the games like that. I know some of these starters are good, but we got to get the ball into the zone. When we do that, we hit the ball well.”

“I thought we’d loosen up once we hit those two home runs,” he said at another point in his post game presser.

“But Nola settled down and kept us off-balance. And we didn’t get anything going until later in the game.”

ABRAMS ANECDOTE:

CJ Abrams finished the month of April with a .295/.373/.619 line on the year, but he was in a bit of a rough stretch going into this weekend’s series in Citizens Bank Park.

In 14 games in May, the 23-year-old shortstop had a .196/.220/.250 line on the month, and in Friday’s game against the Phillies, Abrams said the well-struck balls that weren’t falling in for hits were getting to him a bit.

Abrams lined out and struck out the first two times up against Zack Wheeler, at which point his manager decided he needed to do something different.

“I was joking around with him,” Davey Martinez told reporters before Saturday’s game. “He lined out again his first at-bat. And he just sat there and said, ‘I’m getting tired of lining out.’ So I told him, ‘Hey, why don’t you jump in circles three times, see if you can change your luck.’ And I didn’t think nothing off it, I guess he was behind me jumping in circles three times, and [Bench Coach] Miguel [Cairo] started laughing, and [Abrams] said, ‘Why’d I do that.’ I said, ‘Just to get your mind off your at-bat and just go get the next one, right?’

Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images

“And he came up the third time and hit a double, and he said, ‘Hey, it worked.’

“‘Good for you.’ I said, ‘Hey, I jumped around my whole career,’” the 16-year major league veteran and seventh-year skipper said.

Overall, Martinez said, Abrams has done a good job of putting tough at-bats or mistakes in the field behind him and moving on the next pitch, at-bat, or play in the field.

“Hey, look. Any player, when they square the ball up, they want it to fall,” the manager said.

“I mean, we’re all like that, but this game is a game of inches, right? You’re going to hit the ball hard, and you’re going to make outs. Sometimes you’re going to bloop a ball in there.

“They say it all evens out. It doesn’t. But it’s nice when it does. My job is to try to get them to forget about it and get to that next at-bat.’

“He does good. Once he’s on that on-deck circle, he’s engaged in the next at-bat.”