WASHINGTON-In this strange season, nobody can be completely sure when the Washington Nationals play again.
Except for a change in the program, it will not be before next Tuesday, when they are scheduled to host the New York Mets. Their scheduled three-game weekend series at the Miami Marlins, besieged by the coronavirus, has been postponed, and Monday is a designated day off.
Heck, by next Tuesday, the entire 60-game plan, however beautiful and long-lasting, could be completely demolished, as the coronavirus spreads throughout the league and nation, threatening to short-circuit the best baseball plans.
Regardless, a 24-hour duration that ended around 7:30 pm on Thursday should give some comfort to citizens and their socially distant fans.
Quiet for much of the first week and weakened by a variety of factors, Washington’s bats finally broke out in the tenth inning of Wednesday’s 4-0 win over the traveling Toronto Blue Jays. The offensive attack continued with another 13 rounds in Thursday’s 6-4 triumph that give the Nats something to savor during the break.
“The boys rocked the bats well. It was good to see, ”said manager Dave Martinez. “I believe in these guys. They will understand it. They will start hitting. I really liked the at-bat today. “
Nothing but Stalin Castro’s first inning bat against Hyun-Jin Ryu. Castro made a foul on seven shots before choosing left, one of his career hits with four hits a day, he also scored twice.
After managing only two runs in the first 27 innings of their strange “home and home” series against Toronto, the national teams exploded 10 in the last 10 frames. Even better, Juan Soto is likely to make his seasonal debut next week. After failing 34 home games last season, the 21-year-old was eliminated from Major League Baseball (but not from the city of DC) after a positive covid-19 test.
The absence of Soto exacerbated an offensive drought at the start of the season for the reigning World Series champions, who lost Anthony Rendon’s productive club for free agency and saw Ryan Zimmerman choose to remain out of season due to health problems .
Those shortcomings showed in the miserable start 1-4 of the Natonals. They entered the game on Thursday, ranking 19th in the ranking of the 30 major teams (for now) with an average of .222 teams and a .671 OPS. The reigning World Series champions were 21st in slip percentage and 24th in scoring shots. Their cleaning hitter was journalist Asdrubal Cabrera, an average of .222.
But the statistics were not necessary to appreciate how much the citizens were struggling to score. At the bottom of the first Thursday innings, Martinez ordered his fanatics to play on the grass with Bo Bichette on third base and one out.
This is not the strategy of a manager who expects his team to illuminate the scoreboard. And, of course, the ploy has failed; Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove Bichette home with a single to shallow left field bloop that the Washington short Trea Turner could easily surprise by playing at normal depth.
It could have been disastrous, especially in a shortened season that could end at any moment. But the citizens have responded, and if they can get Soto and Stephen Strasburg (who still haven’t had the pitch due to arm numbness) back after their mini-vacation, their prospects should be much better within the next week. .
“Obviously, we would like to play again tomorrow,” said rookie Carter Kieboom, who had two hits and walked twice. “We have been successful in the past two days and we would all like to build on it and move forward. We are headed in the right direction. “
Unless, of course, the season doesn’t get any worse.
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