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Davey Martinez’s club came away with a win on a hot and humid day in D.C. on Wednesday, but the Washington Nationals didn’t come out of the game unscathed.
“Trea Turner jammed his left middle finger, he’s going to be day-to-day. He jammed it pretty good, he’ll be day-to-day, so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow,” Martinez said.
Turner jammed it sliding into third base while legging out a triple that completed the third cycle of his career on a 4 for 4 day for the shortstop against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Late in the game with the Rays, Juan Soto flew out and grabbed the back of his left hamstring too, and infielder Jordy Mercer had quad issues on a day on which the temperature in the nation’s capital was in the high 90s throughout the 3-hour, 37-minute matchup.
“Soto cramped up on his last at bat, his left hammy,” Martinez said. “Mercer cramped up, his quad cramped up on him. Everybody else, so far, so good.”
Knowing the heat was going to be brutal going in, Martinez was asked, were things like this expected to some extent?
“The issue was it was such a long game, you know. For Mercer, who doesn’t play every day, he was on his feet for a long period of time,” the manager said.
“Soto, running around all day, it’s tough. Hopefully tomorrow everybody is good to go and we’ll come back, we’ll see what the night brings us, but hopefully everybody is good to go tomorrow.”
Martinez was thrilled with the Nationals’ effort against the Rays, in what ended up a 15-6 win which saw the club combine for 18 hits, going 10 for 17 with runners in scoring position and completing a sweep of the two-game set in the nation’s capital.
“It was a great game today, it really was,” the manager said. “These guys came out swinging the bats, it was what we needed to give our guys a little breather, given them a break.
“The back end of the bullpen needed that, and these guys have stepped up, just like I said before, these guys have stepped up for us and they did well, and we got a nice win today.”
With a sweep of the Rays and four straight wins overall, the Nationals, who are 8-2 in their last 10, and just completed a 19-9 month of June, are 2.0 games out in the NL East as they take on the NL West’s 49-31, second-place Dodgers.
NOTES: When Martinez spoke before today’s game, players were just arriving at the park, so he didn’t have an information on the injured players coming out of last night’s game. But the lineup that he’s put together is something — Alex Avila is starting at second base — so, yeah that’s something. It appears Trea Turner and Jordy Mercer are unable to go. Martinez said then that his preference was to play tonight, with the weather a potential issue, but that was before ... and now, with the lineup that the Nationals are fielding? Is a rainout the desired option now? It’s looking like they will play...
HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE 1ST OF 4 WITH THE DODGERS:
Next man up.#NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/vkQwUMECGC
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 1, 2021