The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-15)

SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5

burg and Ross will plan to pitch every five days as they work toward a return to the rotation.

Finger vexes Escobar Alcides Escobar’s finger was sore after Friday night, so Dee Strange-Gordon started at shortstop Saturday. Escobar has been dealing with an infection under the nail of his left index finger that forced him to miss the first three games of the team’s home- stand. Martinez noticed Escobar cringing on a few swings Friday but said if he feels better Sunday he will be back in the lineup.

of feeling really right and maybe just trying to overdo things to try to feel perfect,” Fedde said. “And sometimes it just leads to missing my spots.” He struck out five batters over the next three innings but also gave up three straight hits in the fourth and allowed the Astros to trim Washington’s lead to 4-2. He came out to start the fifth, but when he gave up a home run to Siri, his night was finished.

Strasburg, Ross take mound Right-handers Stephen Stras- burg and Joe Ross both threw two-inning simulated games Fri- day in West Palm Beach, Fla. Strasburg and Ross threw 27 and 33 pitches respectively. Stras- burg’s velocity topped out at 92 mph; Ross reached as high as 95, according to Martinez. Stras-

Baseball

ground into a double play, but he walked off the mound with a pitch count at 22, just seven of which were strikes. “I’ve been grinding a little bit just over the last couple of weeks

HOW THEY SCORED NATIONALS FIRST Cesar Hernandez strikes out swinging. Juan Soto doubles. Josh Bell pops out. Nelson Cruz walks. Yadiel Her- nandez singles, Nelson Cruz to third, Juan Soto scores. Keibert Ruiz flies out. Nationals 1, Astros 0 NATIONALS THIRD Cesar Hernandez grounds out. Juan Soto walks. Josh Bell strikes out swinging. Nelson Cruz singles. Juan Soto to second. Yadiel Hernandez homers, Nelson Cruz scores, Juan Soto scores. Keibert Ruiz singles. Maikel Franco strikes out swinging. Nationals 4, Astros 0 ASTROS FOURTH Yordan Alvarez flies out. Kyle Tucker doubles. Yuli Gur- riel doubles, Kyle Tucker scores. Aledmys Diaz singles, Yuli Gurriel scores. Niko Goodrum strikes out swinging. Martin Maldonado flies out. Nationals 4, Astros 2 NATIONALS FOURTH Dee Strange-Gordon singles. Victor Robles singles. Dee Strange-Gordon to second. Cesar Hernandez out on a sacrifice bunt. Victor Robles to second. Dee Strange- Gordon to third. Juan Soto walks. Josh Bell pops out. Nelson Cruz doubles, Juan Soto scores, Victor Robles scores, Dee Strange-Gordon scores. Yadiel Hernandez grounds out. Nationals 7, Astros 2 ASTROS FIFTH Jose Siri homers. Michael Brantley grounds out. Alex Bregman walks. Yordan Alvarez strikes out on a foul tip. Kyle Tucker pops out. Nationals 7, Astros 3 NATIONALS FIFTH Keibert Ruiz singles. Maikel Franco homers, Keibert Ruiz scores. Dee Strange-Gordon flies out. Victor Rob- les flies out. Cesar Hernandez walks. Juan Soto flies out. Nationals 9, Astros 3 ASTROS SIXTH Yuli Gurriel grounds out. Aledmys Diaz singles. Niko Goodrum strikes out swinging. Martin Maldonado singles. Aledmys Diaz to second. Jose Siri singles. Martin Maldonado to second. Aledmys Diaz to third. Michael Brantley singles, Jose Siri to second, Martin Maldonado to third, Aledmys Diaz scores. Alex Bregman called out on strikes. Nationals 9, Astros 4 NATIONALS SIXTH Josh Bell singles. Nelson Cruz singles. Josh Bell to second. Yadiel Hernandez grounds out. Nelson Cruz to second. Josh Bell to third. Passed ball by catcher Martin Maldonado, Nelson Cruz to third, Josh Bell scores. Keib- ert Ruiz walks. Maikel Franco doubles, Keibert Ruiz to third, Nelson Cruz scores. Dee Strange-Gordon strikes out swinging. Victor Robles singles, Maikel Franco scores, Keibert Ruiz scores. Cesar Hernandez grounds out. Nationals 13, Astros 4 ASTROS EIGHTH Niko Goodrum reaches on error, advances to second. Fielding error by Yadiel Hernandez. Jason Castro strikes out on a foul tip. Jose Siri triples, Niko Goodrum scores. Chas McCormick grounds out, Jose Siri scores. Alex Bregman strikes out swinging. Nationals 13, Astros 6

Nationals 13, Astros 6 ASTROS AB RHBIBBSOAVG Siri cf .............................. 523202 .238 Brantley lf ...................... 301110 .277 McCormick lf .................. 100100 .226 Bregman 3b .................... 300023 .241 Alvarez dh ...................... 400012 .269 Tucker rf......................... 512000 .254 Gurriel 1b ....................... 413100 .229 Díaz ss ............................ 512100 .205 Goodrum 2b.................... 410003 .116 Maldonado c................... 301001 .092 Castro c.......................... 100001 .063 TOTALS 38 612641 2— NATIONALS AB RHBIBBSOAVG C.Hernandez 2b .............. 300011 .270 Soto rf ............................ 331020 .268 Bell 1b ............................ 511002 .336 Cruz dh ........................... 423310 .200 Y.Hernandez lf ............... 512401 .337 Ruiz c.............................. 422010 .267 Franco 3b........................ 522303 .273 Strange-Gordon ss......... 411001 .192 Robles cf......................... 412201 .233 TOTALS 371314 12 59 — HOUSTON............... 000 211 020 —6 12 0 WASHINGTON........ 103 324 00X—1 3141 E: Y.Hernandez (1). LOB: Houston 10, Washington 6. 2B: Tucker (7), Gurriel 2 (13), Soto (7), Cruz (1), Franco (10). 3B: Siri (1). HR: Siri (2), off Fedde; Y.Hernandez (3), off Javier; Franco (3), off Maton. RBI: Gurriel (8), Díaz (9), Siri 2 (6), Brantley (12), McCormick (8), Y.Her- nandez 4 (19), Cruz 3 (20), Franco 3 (21), Robles 2 (12). SB: Gurriel (2). S: C.Hernandez. ASTROS IP HRERBBSONPERA Javier ....................... 32 / 3 8773584 3.20 Maton....................... 11 / 3 22210314 .02 Taylor........................... 144411303 .86 Stanek......................... 100001141 .54 Neris............................ 10000213 0.56 NATIONALS IP HRERBBSONPERA Fedde........................... 453336824 .24 Rogers ......................... 100011124 .87 Cishek.......................... 141102255 .54 Edwards Jr................... 11000010 6.75 Rainey.......................... 112002242 .79 Ramírez....................... 11000111 1.93 WP: Rogers (2-2); LP: Javier (2-1). Inherited runners- scored: Maton 1-0. HBP: Ramírez (Gurriel). PB: Mal- donado (3). T: 3:27. A: 22,949 (41,339).

walked three batters in a row and threw just two strikes over a 1 4-pitch span while facing Mi- chael Brantley, A lex Bregman and Yordan Álvarez. He escaped the jam by getting Kyle Tucker to

balance for most of the night but was able to limit the damage against a stacked Astros lineup. Fedde couldn’t find the strike zone in the first inning. After a strikeout to open the game, Fedde

Washington’s lineup. He entered
spring training competing for a
spot as a reserve outfielder
against Andrew Stevenson, who
was eventually outrighted, and
newly appointed front-office
member Gerardo Parra.
He made the roster, backing up
as a left-handed bat behind Lane
Thomas and Victor Robles. But
Hernandez became one of the
team’s b est run producers early in
the season, leaving Manager Dave
Martinez no choice but to keep
him in the lineup and live with his
occasional defensive lapses.
Such lapses came when Her-
nandez dropped a flyball off the
bat of Niko Goodrum in the
eighth inning, then misplayed a
ball later in the inning that al-
lowed Jose Siri to leg out a triple.
“We had some hiccups on de-
fense in the outfield, and that
can’t h appen,” Martinez said. “We
talk about that all time, and I
addressed it, and I told him, I
said, ‘Hey, if we’re going to win
consistently, that’s got to stop.’ ”
Still, Hernandez is batting .337,
which would be tops on the team
if he played enough games to be
eligible. He ranks fourth in RBI
(19) — not too far behind Josh
Bell, Maikel Franco and Nelson
Cruz. All four players sparked the
Nationals against the Astros
( 22-12).
Cruz picked up three hits, in-
cluding a bases-clearing, three-
run double with two outs in the
fourth to give the Nationals a 7-2
lead after the Astros scored two in
the top of the inning. Franco
blasted a two-run home run in the
fifth. The Astros added another
run in the sixth, but Franco roped
an RBI double into left field after
Bell scored on a passed ball earli-
er in the inning. Robles’s two-run
single capped a four-run inning.
“Everybody contributed,” Mar-
tinez said. “It was a good night
offensively.”
Here’s what else to know about
the Nationals’ win:

Mixed bag for Fedde

Starter Erick Fedde looked off-

NATIONALS FROM D1

Hernandez helps Nats end Astros’ 11-game winning streak

MITCHELL LAYTON/GETTY IMAGES After singling in a run in the first inning, Yadiel Hernandez smacked a three-run homer in the third.

BY JESSE DOUGHERTY

A peek inside the pressure-
packed life of a third base coach,
courtesy of Gary DiSarcina:
Sometimes you make the wrong
decision while trying to jump-
start a stale offense. Sometimes
you make 40 decisions i n a game,
sometimes 50, but are blasted for
the one that gets a runner
thrown out at home. Sometimes
it’s a blowout — your team is
winning big or your team is
losing big — and after holding a
runner to r espect your o pponent,
you look at the guy who hit the
ball and remember he’s in a
contract year.
So sometimes you curse your-
self for costing him an RBI that
could slim his next deal down, if
even by a tiny amount. Then
sometimes you don’t sleep much.
“It’s a really thankless job,”
DiSarcina, the Nationals’ new
third base coach, said in the
dugout at Angel Stadium last
Sunday. “I liken it to being a
cornerback in football. Nobody
notices you until one of two
things happen: You try to be
aggressive and a guy is nailed by
a few steps, or you hold a runner
and everyone in the ballpark
thinks you’re an idiot because he
would have scored.
“At the end of every night, I’ll
admit I’m pretty exhausted.
You’re thinking, thinking and
thinking all game. It can wear on
you.”
Twice against the New York
Mets this past week, DiSarcina

made a split-second d ecision t hat directly affected a rally. On Tues- day, he aggressively sent Yadiel Hernandez with two down, the Mets pulled off a crisp replay from right-center, and Hernan- dez was out by almost a third of the baseline. On Wednesday, Di - Sarcina held Nelson Cruz with one out and was rewarded when Keibert Ruiz, the next batter, brought Cruz in with a single. Typically, more outs mean Di - Sarcina is more likely to take a risk. He calls himself “selectively aggressive” while trying to mir- ror Manager Dave Martinez’s style. Before the Nationals hired him in November, DiSarcina was the third base coach for the Mets (20 19 -21) and Los Angeles Angels (2014-15). He j okes that his hair is gray because of three years coaching third in New York, where there’s more media scruti- ny than in any other market. And it was in his first crack at the job, working for the Angels’ Mike Scioscia, when DiSarcina felt the lift of a manager’s trust. “I would stand next to Mike during the n ational anthem most games, and once it was over he would say: ‘Hey, DiSar, go g et t wo guys thrown out f or me tonight,’ ” DiSarcina recalled. “Of course he didn’t want me to actually run us out of innings. The point was that he was enabling me to be aggressive when I saw a chance. He was okay with outs if I made calls based on what I was seeing, the scoreboard, where we were in the lineup and how a guy’s legs

were feeling that day, among other things. A manager has to trust his third base coach. A lot goes into it.” DiSarcina, 54, can usually rec- ognize when he errs. Earlier this season, for example, he sent Josh Bell in the fourth inning against the Miami Marlins, and the play wasn’t p articularly close. Reflect- ing on it a few weeks later, DiSarcina said he was too fo- cused on trying to help an offense that wasn’t scoring much. Bell also was dealing with two minor injuries, something DiSarcina knew but looked past in the interest of scoring a run. After the eventual loss, Bell told reporters that, if he’s on the field, he has to be treated as

healthy and able to beat a relay throw. Still, DiSarcina was frus- trated by choosing the wrong spot to push. Three pitchers after the Marlins threw Bell out, Her- nandez blew past DiSarcina’s stop sign and was thrown out, too. And on Thursday, in a 4-1 loss to the Mets, the Nationals made two outs at third base on the same play, during which neither Juan Soto nor Bell was running on DiSarcina’s direction. Some of base running is instinc- tual, good or bad, and out of a coach’s control. “Getting thrown out... sometimes we need to go in those situations, and they just h appen to make good throws, good re- lays,” Martinez said Thursday.

“But things like that, when we’re behind... those are not good base running decisions [by Soto and Bell].” So many in-game decisions are now heavily influenced by analytics and detailed preparation, removing at least some of the human element. That goes for pitch usage, defensive positioning, late-inning matchups or when a base stealer tries for second, among other choices day-to-day. But whether to wave a runner home — or whether to stop him mid-stride — is o ften decided in a second or less. DiSarcina weighs scouting, the positioning of the opponent’s outfielders, the situa- tion and his s nap v iew of the p lay. He h as a color system f or outfield arms that operates like a traffic light in his head. A red arm (Ronald Acuña Jr.) means he should exercise caution with a strong thrower. A yellow arm (the entire Angels outfield this past weekend) is neutral. Green is good for the Nationals, ripe for sends on sacrifice f lies t hat aren’t too deep. “And then it’s hard not to remember that this is also about money for these guys,” said Di - Sarcina, who p layed in 12 seasons as a major league shortstop. “That only creeps into your head during a lopsided game. If we’re up 10 -1, the book says to slow down and be conservative, right? I get it. But maybe the guy in the box is going to arbitration next winter, and you’re taking away a

run batted in. It’s not the sole reason to keep waving, but it’s another thing to consider.” If it all weighs on him and if he feels noticed only when screwing up, does DiSarcina like the post? He has managed in the mi- nors, been a major league bench coach and coached first for the Angels. With Washington, he also works with the infielders and has a big hand in defensive positioning. In theory, he could trade the stress at third for something lower key, e asier on his s urgically repaired knees, quieter in his mind. Just t he thought made him shake his head and laugh. “Oh, no, no, I love it,” he said. “There’s no other coaching job that feels this close t o playing. It’s an absolute rush over there.”

The highs and lows of a third base coach, MLB’s ‘thankless job’

Analytics can inform DiSarcina’s decision-making, but there are many other factors that go into whether to send a runner home

NATIONALS ON DECK

vs. Houston Astros

Today1:35MASN

at Miami Marlins

Tomorrow 6:40MASN2

Tuesday6:40MASN2 Wednesday6:40MASN2

at Milwaukee Brewers

Friday8:10 MASN2 Saturday7:10 MASN2

May 22 2:10 MASN2

Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM) or WTEM (980 AM)

KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST “At the end of every night, I’ll admit I’m pretty exhausted,” Gary DiSarcina said. “You’re thinking, thinking and thinking all game.”

ly well — we just didn’t score,” Orioles Manager Brandon Hyde said. “We struggled against what ended up being a bullpen game. Our starters are doing an amazing job, but we’ve got to score some more runs.” The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the second when left f ielder Ryan Mc- Kenna misplayed Jonathan Schoop’s leadoff double, allowing him to reach third. Castro fol- lowed with a sacrifice fly. Haase made it 2-0 with a leadoff homer in the fifth, and Castro ended Zimmermann’s d ay w ith a homer on his first pitch o f the s eventh. — Associated Press

those and worked from there.” Peralta (1-0) set down eight batters, and four more relievers finished. Gregory Soto pitched the ninth for his fifth save. Eric Haase and Willi Castro homered for the Tigers, who clinched their first series win at home this season. The Detroit defense turned four double plays. “It’s nice to hit some balls out because that’s something we ha- ven’t done much early on,” Hinch said. Bruce Zimmermann (2-2) allowed two earned runs in six-plus innings. “Bruce threw the ball extreme-

middle finger on his right hand in the second inning. “We don’t know yet if he will need surgery, but he’s going to be out for a while,” Tigers Manager A.J. Hinch said. “We didn’t have everyone available in the bullpen today, b ut everyone got in line and did what we needed them to do.” Wily Peralta replaced him, with the game delayed to give him time to warm up. “I’ve never had to warm up on the mound in my career, and I didn’t r eally get a chance to figure out what was working,” h e said. “I had a couple good fastballs at the end, so I started out throwing

BY DAVE HOGG

detroit — Tigers starter Mi-
chael Pineda exited early after a
line drive broke a finger on his
pitching hand, and the Detroit
bullpen dominated the rest of the
way, teaming on a four-hitter to
beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-0,
on Saturday.
Pineda retired all four hitters
he faced but had to leave after
Ramon Urias’s liner broke the

O’s knock out Pineda early, but Detroit is resilient

TIGERS 3, ORIOLES 0

RAJ MEHTA/ASSOCIATED PRESS Starter Bruce Zimmermann allowed two earned runs Saturday in six-plus innings, but Baltimore’s offense managed just four hits.

The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-15)

Get our desktop app

Company

Features

Documentation

Resources