Washington Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez talked after Saturday night’s loss in Atlanta about his message for the team, to make sure they weren’t pressing and focused on their place in the NL East standings, after a third consecutive loss.
He said he wanted them to stick to their goal of winning each game, or going 1-0 every day, as Martinez likes to say.
“The word of the day today was ‘simplicity,’” Martinez explained.
“Just keep everything simple, that’s what I want them to do, stay one game at a time, stay in the moment, we’re in the here and now.”
Asked if he felt the need to reiterate his message and make sure his team remained focused on the task at hand, especially after they dropped three in a row to the Braves and four in a row overall last week, the second-year skipper said there was a lot of pressure, which made it even more important to stick with the approach he’s preached all season.
“September, a lot of things go on,” he said. “One, we’re in a pennant race. Two, it’s the last month, everyone is trying to put up numbers, but just hey, it takes the whole team.
“Remember I said that, it takes everybody on the roster to participate and everybody’s got to do their job, and when we do that, we’re really good.”
Martinez and Trea Turner both got ejected in the fifth inning of the series finale on Sunday, and bench coach Chip Hale, who managed the remainder of the game, said afterwards it seemed like some of the pressure that had built up in the series was released on the home plate ump, Mike Estabrook.
“We’ve lost three against this club that we’re chasing, and the emotions were running high, and every at bat is so important to these guys, on a personal level and a team level, so you know that the frustration just starts to build,” Hale said.
The Nationals were up 4-1 at that point, and they added four in the seventh in what ended up a 9-4 win, that allowed them to avoid a sweep in SunTrust Park.
“Lost three games and to come in here and take one, avoid the sweep, that always feels good,” Max Scherzer told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Byron Kerr, after a strong, six-inning outing in the series finale with the Braves.
“At least we’re traveling to Minnesota feeling good about ourselves and hopefully we have a good series against the Twins.”
The Nationals’ first game in Target Field starts at 7:40 PM EDT tonight...
HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE OPENER WITH THE TWINS:
We play baseball again tonight, and that’s enough reason to smile. #STAYINTHEFIGHT // #OnePursuit pic.twitter.com/6xsmYsXlHy
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 10, 2019