Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats win opener with Marlins, 3-1; Joey Meneses drives in big runs + more…

Notes and quotes from Washington’s series opener in Miami…

NO OFFENSE:

Davey Martinez’s club went 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position and 23 left on base in the three-game set with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Nationals Park, losing all three games, prompting Washington’s manager to talk after the sweep was complete about the need to get their offense back on track.

“We’re struggling right now offensively as a whole. We can’t put nothing together,” Martinez told reporters after the series finale in the nation’s capital. “We got to get our offense going again. We’re playing well, playing good defense. We turned four double plays today. It’s not easy to hold that team over there to just two runs.

“So we’ve just got to hit. We’ve got to come back, we’ve got to be aggressive, start hitting the baseball.”

It was a frustrating series for the skipper and his club, who dropped 4 of 6 games on their homestand, scoring four runs total in the three with the Dodgers.

“We had moments where we could have scored some runs,” Martinez said.

“We just got to get back to being us, which is be aggressive, do the simple things, we had a chance today to score runs just by moving a guy over, the next guy hit a fly ball. Those are the little things that matter. If we do that, it’s a tie game right now. We’ve got to get back to that. And the big boys in the middle of the lineup have to start driving in runs for us. Big runs.

“Joey [Meneses] is starting to swing the bat a little bit better. CJ [Abrams] has been awesome. The guys in the middle need to start knocking in some runs for us.”

What do they need to do differently? What’s not working right now?

“We’ve got to be selective,” Martinez explained before the series finale with LA.

“We’ve got to swing at strikes, when we do get a ball we can hit, we’ve got to put it in play and try to hit it hard. I mean, I think that’s the key to our whole offense. Take our walks, get on for the next guy, and try to be a little bit more selective on our swings.

“We can hit, and we showed that, but we’ve got to stay within ourselves.”

Martinez’s club put just one run up, on five hits, through seven innings against a parade of Marlins’ relievers (after Jesús Luzardo, their scheduled starter, was scratched with discomfort in his elbow before the first game of this weekend’s three-game series), and Nationals’ right-hander Trevor Williams limited the home team to one run, on five hits, in five innings, before Derek Law tossed two scoreless to keep it 1-1 after seven in loanDepot park.

After going 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position against LA, the Nationals started their series in Miami 0 for 5 w/RISP, with the one run through seven scoring when Joey Meneses hit into a bases-loaded double play in the sixth, following hits by both Jacob Young and CJ Abrams, and a walk by Jesse Winker.

Meneses got another bases-loaded opportunity with one out in the eighth, and this time he came through, lining a two-run single back up the middle to put the Nationals up 3-1 on the Marlins.

“I say it all the time: We’ve got to stay in the middle of the field,” Martinez said after the club held on for a 3-1 win.

“That’s who we are. A lot of hits in the middle of the field. We did a better job later in the game. We pulled off a lot of balls today.

“But you know what, that’s a good win on the road. First game of the series.”

Meneses was on a nice run going into the game, going, “9-for-19 (.474) with a double, five RBI(s) and two walks over his last five games,” and the slugger had, “… hit safely in four of the five games,” as the Nationals highlighted in their pregame notes.

“He is 3-for-8 (.375) with runners in scoring position over this stretch after going 2-for-12 (.167) in the first 11 games of the season.”

“He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing,” Martinez said, “which is staying in the middle of the field. The home runs will come. But we got to start making good, solid contact in order for that to happen. We’re seeing a lot of breaking balls, we are, looking back at all of these things. So we gotta stay on the baseball. And like I said, when we start hitting the ball in the middle of the field, we’re pretty good.”

The Nationals finished the night 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position and six left on base in the win, taking the opener without connecting for an extra-base hit.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Martinez said. “We were battling, trying to score some runs, they hung in there, we got one more than the other guys, and it was a good win for us.”

LUIS GARCÍA TOOK MESSAGE TO HEART:

Going into last night’s series opener with the Marlins in Miami, Luis García, Jr. had hit safely in seven straight, going 9 for 26 (.346/.414/.346) with two RBIs, three walks, and four stolen bases over the course of the streak for the 23-year-old infielder.

On the year, the young vet, in his fifth year in the majors, took a .311/.346/.446 line, seven doubles, a home run, and five stolen bases (in five attempts) into the 1st of 3 with the Fish.

“[Hitting coach] Darnell [Coles] and [Assistant Hitting Coach] Chris Johnson and [García, Jr.] have worked diligently since January to kind of refine his stroke, to refine his approach at the plate,” Nationals’ GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo told Audacy’s Sports Junkies earlier this week, “… and it’s no secret with Luis, since he’s been with us, since we signed the kid, when he gets pitches in the strike zone he can really hit.”

“When he gets in trouble he chases and gets out of the strike zone,” Rizzo continued.

“So the constant with Luis is to keep him focused in and zoned in on the strike zone, what pitches he can handle the best and that’s really a by-product of our hitting people sitting down with him each and every day before the games and really [mapping] out a strategy for each individual pitcher that we’re going to face.”

“I make sure that [Third Base & Infield Coach] Ricky [Gutierrez] talks to him every day, I sit down and talk to him every day,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters Friday afternoon.

“We give him a plan for the day and it’s up to him to follow the plan. And when he does it good things happen.”

Martinez talked before the series finale with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday about hammering the message home with García from the start this spring, and staying on him every day to make sure he knows what’s expected of him.

“I was on him in Spring Training pretty hard, and I think he needed that,” Martinez explained.

“I’m going to be honest with you, I coddled him for a while. He’s a young kid, but I told him, ‘Hey, this is it. This is year [five], we got to get it going — and I’m going to be on you every day.

“‘You’re going to do everything the right way, you’re going to do everything the right way, you’re going to play, you’re going to hustle, you’re going to do everything you’re supposed to be doing,’ because I really believe that he’s got a bright future.

“He took it to heart, and he’s gotten with Ricky, doing all his work, really understanding how to play defense, how to set his feet, how to throw the ball, how to run the bases, and how to work good at-bats. What balls he hits well, the balls he has to take in order to be successful.

“I give him all the credit for really, really starting to buy in and doing all the work. So he’s been awesome. He’s hitting fourth for us, that says a lot.”

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

“Congrats to him,” Rizzo added, echoing his skipper’s praise. “He worked really, really hard this offseason and through Spring Training and I think Darnell and CJ have done a great job with him to kind of refine that thought process and to really get his swing to where he’s staying on the baseball, using the whole field, not trying to be pull-happy, and I think he’s seeing the results of that work.”

In addition to the hit streak, as the Nationals highlighted in their pregame notes for Friday’s matchup with the Marlins, in recent games García, “… [had] struck out just three times in his 37 plate appearances (8%) after striking out 10 times in his first 41 appearances (24%).

In those 37 PAs (which stretched over the last 9 games), García had a .294/.351/.382 line at the plate.

“He’s finally starting to grasp what he needs to do every day to succeed,” Martinez said on Friday. “And that was my ultimate goal with him, was to show him, ‘Hey, you can play here, but these things need to happen, and they need to happen consistently.’ And he’s showing that right now. So, I’m not talking about hitting, because everybody is going to go 0 for 4, I’m talking about the little things. Running the bases well, understanding where to play, positioning, making good throws, getting your feet underneath you when you make the good throws, being ready at all times, anticipating the ball being hit to you and knowing what you want to do with it.

“All that stuff he’s done really well with so far, so I’m really proud of what he’s done and where he’s at, and if he continues to do that, he’s going to have a good year, he really is.”

García singled on a slider low over the middle from Marlins’ reliever Anthony Maldonado to lead off the top of the second, extending his current hit streak to eight-straight games.

BONUS QUOTE: DAVEY MARTINEZ ON CADE CAVALLI THROWING IN MIA

“It’s awesome. He threw really well. I talked to [Jim] Hickey. He said the ball’s coming out really well. So I wanted to get him here. He’s really close, he’s been in West Palm. So to get him here and get him with the guys and watch him throw a bullpen was good. It’s good for him, too, because he’s put a tremendous amount of work in. He’s done great. And we’re getting closer. So I’m excited about his progress. I know that somewhere along the line, whether it’s towards the middle or the end of this summer, he’ll be on the mound for us if everything goes well. So we’re excited about that.”