Washington Nationals’ lineup for 3rd of 3 with the Atlanta Braves in D.C.

Davey Martinez was delayed a lot longer than usual getting to his post game Zoom call with reporters last night, so reporters on the call wondered if anything was going on behind the scenes in Nationals Park when Washington’s fourth-year manager did eventually appear on camera on the dais.

“I was honestly just talking to our coaching staff, talked to a few of the players,” Martinez said after the sixth straight loss for his club, and their 11th loss in 13 games in August.

“I just wanted to reiterate to those guys, ‘Hey, we’ve got to stay positive, keep our heads up, and keep pushing forward,’” Martinez added.

“I mean, we got a lot of young players ... and I want them to understand that we’ve got to teach. This is a moment where we’ve got to teach and stay with them every day and stay positive. So I just wanted to make sure I had a conversation with them before they all went home.”

Is all the losing getting to the players to the point that the manager thought he had to say something to his club?

“No, I think today, the game — until the sixth inning still felt like we were still in the game,” Martinez explained, “and then things imploded a little bit and then things got out of hand late, but I’m watching them and I think they’re playing hard. They really are. We’ve got to continue to play hard. The minute we stop playing hard, the conversations will be different in the clubhouse, believe me.

“But we’re going to keep playing hard, we’re going to keep pushing, and hopefully some of these games we’ll come home 1-0 and we’ll go from there.”

Will the Nationals go 1-0 today, or will they end up dropping their seventh straight game overall and their 12th in 14 this month?

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE FINALE WITH THE BRAVES:

NOTES: That’s Lane Thomas in there batting second, the outfielder acquired from St. Louis in the trade that sent Jon Lester to the Cardinals at the deadline.

Here’s Davey Martinez’s quick scouting report on what he heard about Lane in Triple-A Rochester from the brief time he was there after the trade:

“He sprays the ball around, hits the ball to right-center, left-center, moves the baseball, he can play left field, center field, right field, just a good all-around player. He’s got some speed, but we like the way he swings the bat. He was doing well in Triple-A, he came over he was doing well down there, so we’re going to give him an opportunity to play.”