WASHINGTON -- After waiting through the long slog of winter in D.C. and the anticipation throughout Spring Training for Opening Day to finally arrive, it is sometimes important to remember it is only one game.
It will be hard to tell what, if anything from it, is for real. Or decipher what trends to pay attention to even throughout the first few weeks of the season really, so what happened in the Nationals' 2-0 loss to the Mets on Thursday afternoon might not be indicative of what’s to come for the remaining 161 games.
There were a few things that stood out during the season’s opening game, however, and these are the three main takeaways worth keeping an eye on going forward:
Questions arise about Martinez again
Thursday was not a good day for manager Dave Martinez.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and trailing 1-0, Max Scherzer -- who had already thrown 93 pitches and seven-innings of one run ball with 10 strikeouts -- hit for himself. Scherzer said after the game he told his manager he could continue pitching if needed, but he left the decision up to him. Scherzer struck out.
Here’s Martinez’s explanation: “We had six outs to get a run. I knew that spot would come up again, I was trying to save [Matt Adams] to face either [Edwin] Diaz or [Jeurys] Familia if we get to that spot. [Max] was doing good. I communicate with Max, day in and day out, during games and he looked good. I was trying to give him a chance to stay in the game, win the game. I knew we had six outs with our top guys coming up to hit.”
The Mets may have brought in a lefty if Adams pinch-hit, but the moment Martinez was waiting for never happened. The pitcher’s spot never came back up. Robinson Cano extended the lead to 2-0 and gone is the chance to use Adams to tie the game with one swing. Adams would pinch-hit for Yan Gomes with two outs and nobody on in the ninth. And Scherzer would record two more outs, but his one-out walk in the eighth inning came around to score when Martinez made another curious decision.
He summoned Matt Grace from the bullpen with two outs and two on in the eighth inning to face Cano, because he said he liked how Grace’s sinker matched up with Cano, who Statcast tracked as having a batting average of .324 with a .353 slugging percentage last year against sinkers. Grace was successful last year -- with a 2.87 ERA in 56 appearances -- and he even made a good pitch inside and off the plate to Cano. But Grace pitches to contact -- a 19.4 percent strikeout rate last year when the MLB average for a reliever is 23.2 percent, and Cano was able to fight his sinker off for a bloop single. The Nats just signed veteran reliever Tony Sipp, seemingly to pitch in these exact spots. In a game decided by two runs with an off-day the following day, Sean Doolittle, Trevor Rosenthal nor Sipp pitched, but all of them warmed up.
Yes, it’s only one game, but it was not the best game from the dugout.
Those “little things” might take some time
Nearly ad nauseam this spring, the Nationals went on and on about how they were focusing on fundamentals and they vowed to be better at the “little things” such as situational hitting, defense and baserunning.
Well, these things aren’t just as easy as flipping a switch. They went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding runners at first and third with nobody out, after Trea Turner struck out and then Victor Robles ran into a double play after hesitating on a ground ball in the infield, which cost them a run.
“To be honest, I got a little confused,” Robles said through team interpreter Octavio Martinez. “But we'll learn from this. We'll get better and move on.”
The Nats should take no shame in being shut out by Jacob deGrom, who recorded his 30th consecutive start of allowing three runs or fewer, and the improved back end of the Mets bullpen with Seth Lugo, Familia and Edwin Diaz. But every team works on fundamentals in Spring Training and vows to be better at situational hitting. The Nats might still be, but some of the changes on defense and on the bases might take time.
Turner’s stolen-base potential
It’s always sort of striking just how easily it seems Turner is able to swipe bases. It’s probably not as easy, but sometimes he glides into the bag well ahead of the throw that it almost feels like he could run every time he gets on. Turner starting off the year 3-for-3 after one game has to make the Nats feel encouraged. Remember Martinez challenged Turner to run at least 75 times this season.
“I mean he was great,” Martinez said about Turner’s aggressiveness on the bases. “He drew attention to himself on the bases. It gave some of our hitters better pitches to hit.”