Washington Nationals news & notes: Davey Martinez on the Nats’ offense, deciding on catchers + more...

Runs Are Contagious, How About Pitching?:

Nationals’ hitters put up one run in three games before busting out with eight runs on 12 hits in Friday’s four-game losing-streak snapping 8-5 win, and Washington also got good pitching from Josiah Gray in the 2nd of 4 in Great American Ball Park. We always hear it’s contagious when a team starts to hit, but what about pitching?

“Absolutely,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters before the 3rd of 4 with Cincinnati’s Reds. “You know, the thing is, when it comes to hitting and any team that’s struggling, you start the game and all of a sudden you find yourself trying to come back again. We did that yesterday, we did come back, but it was the innings after that with Josiah, where he beared down and kept us in the game, gave the guys some motivation. They went out there and they scored some more runs for him when he went out and he pretty much shut the door down. So that’s kind of what we need. And I tell the guys, ‘Hey, we give up a run or two the first thing, there’s still a lot of baseball left. And we’ve got a good enough offense that we can inch our way and come back and end up winning these games. So don’t get down.’”

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With the losses piling up though, and the lack of run support last week, it’s not always easy to stay positive.

“It’s never been, ‘Easy!’” - John Locke on LOST

“But like I said,” Martinez continued, “... when the wins aren’t there all time, it gets kind of frustrating for them. But they gotta keep playing. We talk about that. And they do.

“They play hard till the last inning, and that’s all you can ask.”

That and some more wins, fewer errors, less sloppy play, etc.

Stevie Wonder Talked About Getting Too High...

We always hear about not getting too high or too low too, but when you’re not winning a lot, maybe getting too high when you do is not so bad... or something.

We’ll let Davey Martinez take it from here...

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“I want these guys to get a little high, that sounds funny, but I do. I want these guys to have that good feeling going into today’s game and continue doing what they did yesterday.”

Catching Corps:

In the first three games in Great American Ball Park, Davey Martinez went with Keibert Ruiz, then Riley Adams, and Ruiz again, which set up Adams with Patrick Corbin potentially in the series finale today, which, considering Corbin has a 3.56 ERA and .214/.287/.350 line against in five starts and 30 ¹⁄₃ IP with Adams, versus his brutal-ish 11.25 ERA and a .414/.477/.603 line against in six starts and 24 IP with Ruiz, would seem to make sense, but ... not so fast.

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“I’m trying to get both of them in there, you know,” Martinez said when asked about his own decision-making on the catching these days early on Saturday afternoon.

“Hey, it’s a long season, and as we progress and the summer comes it’s going to get hot,” the manager said, “but I want both of them — they both are young stud catchers. I want them both to get some playing time. Keibert is obviously our main catcher, so he’s back in there today, he’ll probably play tomorrow as well, but I want to make sure I keep Riley fresh as well, and he’s done a great job.”