Entering tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, it would have been a fair assessment to make that the Nationals’ offense was struggling, capital S. Sure, the team had won two games in a row, but the offense had only scored three runs in both wins after a difficult West Coast run.
A large part of the team’s offensive difficulties included the fact that Bryce Harper wasn’t seeing any good pitches to hit, because he had minimal protection behind him in the order, allowing him to be walked easily.
With that in mind, Nationals manager Davey Martinez and Bryce Harper sat down and worked something out: Harper would take the leadoff spot so he could get a few guaranteed at-bats with pitches to hit.
“Why not?” Martinez asked. “Hopefully, he gets more pitches to hit.
“We talked about him just getting probably one at-bat and he’s chasing a lot. So hopefully he gets a couple more pitches to hit.”
As it turned out, it worked pretty well:
Think Bryce Harper likes the leadoff spot? pic.twitter.com/zbHGvG2rsK
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) May 2, 2018
Harper’s homer, his ninth of the year, was his first since April 16th against the Mets (which came on a broken bat, by the way).
It would seem that the lineup shift has worked wonders for the entire ballclub, which, at press time, is leading the Pirates 12-0...