Washington Nationals news & notes: Trevor Williams’ third start; bullpen game + more…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ last two games…

FRIDAY:

Trevor Williams got off to a rough start in his second outing of the spring last week in West Palm Beach.

Williams gave up a leadoff home run, back-to-back singles, and a three-run blast which put him and the Nationals in a 4-0 hole early in what ended up a 9-4 loss to the Astros.

All four of the hits came on pitches up in the zone, and the 31-year-old veteran left pitches up for back-to-back singles, the second an RBI hit, in his third and final inning in what ended up a 55-pitch, 38-strike outing in his second start of the spring after he arrived at camp late following the birth of a child.

Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

Williams, 31, put up a 5.55 ERA, 5.98 FIP, 53 walks, and 111 Ks, with an NL-leading 34 home runs allowed, and a .300/.359/.533 line against in 144 1⁄3 innings pitched in his 30 starts in the first year of his 2-year/$13M free agent deal in Washington.

Heading in the second season in D.C., he said he felt good in spite of the results in start No. 2.

“At this point in camp, I’m feeling good,” Williams said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, after the start.

“I’m feeling like I’m where we need to be. I think we threw 55 today, or almost 60, so to get to that volume today was good and was positive. … I thought we executed really everything that we wanted to execute. It’s a day in Spring Training that you look at the positives a lot more than the results. So at this point in camp, I’m where I need to be.”

“He fell behind a little bit,” manager Davey Martinez said of Williams’ start.

“His changeup wasn’t as effective as it was in his first outing. But overall I thought he threw the ball okay. He made some good pitches. They didn’t really hit the ball exceptionally hard. They hit (two home runs). I thought he threw the ball okay. So he’s gotta get that changeup command better.”

Start No. 3 for Williams on Friday began with another leadoff home run, and he gave up three more hits and a second run before getting out of the inning.

He retired the next eight batters he faced, before an error put a runner on he erased with a double play one out later, and worked around three hits in his fifth and final inning in a 68-pitch, 48-strike appearance in what ended up a 7-3 win for the Nationals.

SATURDAY:

Things didn’t go as well for the Nationals’ pitchers on Saturday, with Luis Perdomo (4 H, 2 BB, 3 ER in 1 IP), Dylan Floro (2 H, 1 ER in 1 IP), Tanner Rainey (3 BB, 1 ER, 2 Ks in 1 IP), and Robert Garcia (3 H, 1 BB, 3 ER, 2 Ks, 1 IP) combing to give up 8 ER on 9 H in 4 IP after two scoreless from Derek Law to start the bullpen game.

“Some of these guys, when they get to face big league hitters, the at-bats get extended,” Davey Martinez said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, after the game:

“There’s more pitches; they’re not the five-, six-, seven-pitch innings. That’s kind of what I wanted to see. I wanted to see them get deeper in counts and see how they do. And I saw that today. Some guys were good and battled, and it was nice to see them go through that.”

WOOD’S WRIST:

James Wood, 21, tweaked his wrist on an awkward swing in Friday’s Spring Breakout game, and was a late scratch on Saturday, and Nationals fans had to wait until after their loss to the Cardinals on Saturday for an explanation, which MASN’s Mark Zuckerman got from the Nats’ skipper when he spoke with reporters in his postgame presser:

“It was a weird swing, so I didn’t want to take any chances,” Martinez said. “He feels totally fine. He said he could play today. But I said: ‘You’ve been playing a lot. Let’s just give you a day, and we’ll get you back out there.’”

Wood, the 2021 2nd Round pick by the Padres acquired from San Diego in the Juan Soto (and Josh Bell trade in 2022), is 12 for 37 (.324/.457/.649), with a double, triple, and three home runs so far this spring in an impressive run in Grapefruit League action.

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