Two of the Nationals\u2019 regulars, each of them struggling mightily at the moment, are getting the day off.<\/p>\n
Both CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz are sitting for this afternoon\u2019s series finale against the Rangers. That\u2019s a product both of the matchup, with Texas sending left-hander Jacob Latz to the mound to open a bullpen game, and of those hitters\u2019 recent struggles.<\/p>\n
Abrams, who hasn\u2019t had a day off since returning from a brief stint on the 10-day injured list April 24, is batting just .169 with a .247 on-base percentage and .312 slugging percentage over his last 19 games. In that time, the 24-year-old shortstop has seen his OPS plummet from .926 to .787, potentially taking him out of All-Star consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s chasing a lot,\u201d manager Davey Martinez said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get him back in the zone. Everything\u2019s up. He\u2019s got to get the ball down in the zone a little bit. When he does get the ball down, he hits the ball hard. But it\u2019s all about chasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abrams, who has drawn only two walks over his last 61 plate appearances, has been quite swing-happy of late. He swung at six of the first nine pitches he saw during Saturday\u2019s 2-0 loss before finally working a seven-pitch at-bat in the bottom of the ninth (though that still ended with a strikeout on a cutter up in the zone).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you feel like you\u2019re in a funk, you think by swinging more you\u2019ll get out of it,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI always say less is more sometimes. Seeing more pitches, getting deeper in counts could help. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAccept your walks. That\u2019s going to be a big key for all of our guys. When we start accepting our walks, we extend a lot of those innings. We did it really well for a week there. We\u2019ve got to get back to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz falls into the same category. The notoriously swing-happy catcher is batting just .176 over his last 19 games, hasn\u2019t walked once and has only struck out six times over 75 plate appearances. The problem: The contact he has made hasn\u2019t been solid, leading to a plethora of weak ground balls, usually to the right side of the infield.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet his chase rate down, he\u2019ll start hitting the ball hard again,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s got to happen. For him, it has to happen. Because he\u2019s so good at putting balls in play \u2026 a lot of times, I don\u2019t want him to put the ball in play. I just want him to get a good pitch to hit and take a good, healthy swing on it. That\u2019s when he\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
* Derek Law will travel with the Nationals to New York this week and face hitters in a simulated game, the first time the veteran reliever has done that since the end of spring training. Law, on the 15-day injured list with right forearm inflammation, has been building up slowly over the last month. He\u2019s still several weeks away from returning but is finally progressing.<\/p>\n
* Paul DeJong also will travel with the team on this short road trip, the first time the veteran infielder has done so since he was struck in the face by a pitch April 15 in Pittsburgh. DeJong, who suffered multiple fractures to his cheekbone, nose and orbital area, is finally ready to begin some light baseball activities.<\/p>\n
* Orlando Ribalta, on the 15-day IL since April 10 with a right biceps strain, will head to West Palm Beach, Fla., to begin ramping up his throwing program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the Nationals\u2019 regulars, each of them struggling mightily at the moment, are getting the day off.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,497,3572,2101,908,4,415,568,1226,149,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-89386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cj-abrams","10":"tag-derek-law","11":"tag-keibert-ruiz","12":"tag-mark-zuckerman","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-nationals","15":"tag-nationals-featured","16":"tag-paul-dejong","17":"tag-rangers","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-texas-rangers","20":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114649989529629178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}