Maybe this was the swing that would get shortstop CJ Abrams back on track. It certainly looked that way when the Washington Nationals shortstop connected with a sinker from Luis Severino during the third inning of Wednesday’s matchup with the New York Mets.
The ball carried to deep center field at Nationals Park, sending the Mets’ Harrison Bader toward the wall. In the moment, a home run would have given the Nationals an early lead. In the bigger picture, seeing the ball land beyond the fence would have given Abrams a much-needed boost of confidence.
But Bader stopped a step short of the wall and caught the ball on the warning track. Abrams stepped on first base and used it to let loose some frustration: He jumped into the air, landed and then ripped off his helmet.
His at-bat didn’t make or break the Nationals in a 9-1 loss to the Mets, who swept the three-game series. But it was another challenging day for Abrams, who finished 0 for 3 to remain in a season-altering slump.
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“He’s got enough power to juice balls, but he’s got to start thinking about hitting balls hard on a line,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “And those home runs will start coming.”
In April, Abrams announced himself. He was the Nationals’ most consistent hitter, spearheading an offense that was at its best when the 23-year-old was at his. As the month ended, Abrams was hitting .295 with a .992 OPS and had slugged a team-leading seven home runs. He hit an impressive .395 against fastballs and sinkers in April, according to TruMedia. It seemed he was primed for a breakout.
Naturally, opposing pitchers found a way to adjust. If there was a troubling trend within Abrams’s start, it was his aggressiveness on pitches outside the strike zone. His chase rate was 39.9 percent in April, per TruMedia; Martinez said ideally he wants his players at 30 percent or below. In May, Abrams’s chase rate jumped to 41.7 percent.
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Abrams saw fastballs and sinkers 43.4 percent of the time in April. In May, that dropped to 36.6 percent. Martinez said he believes Abrams started looking for off-speed pitches, which made him late on fastballs. He hit .205 with a .519 OPS in May and closed the month dealing with a shoulder injury that kept him out of three games. As a four-game series with Atlanta opens Thursday, he’s hitting .246 with nine home runs and a .739 OPS.
In his past 12 games, Abrams is 8 for 48 (.167) with 14 strikeouts and one walk. He declined to speak with reporters after Wednesday’s loss.
“It’s a tough game,” teammate Joey Gallo said. “He was super hot to start the season. If he stayed that hot, he’d be winning MVP. It’s just how the game goes. You’re going to have great stretches where you’re Superman. You’re going to have stretches where nothing can go right for you. It just seems like he’s in that stretch right now.”
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In his first at-bat, Abrams fouled off an outside fastball, watched a cutter for a strike, then swung through a high fastball. In his third at-bat in the sixth inning, he got a fastball over the heart of the plate but was late and grounded out to Severino.
“There were other at-bats … where he was just overly aggressive and jammed himself,” Martinez said. “He’s got to get ready. He’s got to get ready early. He’s got to start focusing on hitting line drives.”
As Abrams looked for answers, the Mets (27-35) cruised to a sweep. Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin started strong until he allowed a third-inning, opposite-field solo home run to catcher Luis Torrens, New York’s No. 9 hitter, who hadn’t homered since Oct. 5, 2022. Bader added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 2-0.
In the sixth, Torrens homered again, this time to dead center, and Francisco Lindor followed with another blast on the next pitch to break the game open. Corbin allowed two more hits and left with runners on the corners. Four more runs came across as Jordan Weems could not clean up the mess. (Corbin was charged with six runs in 5⅓ innings as his ERA increased to 6.15.) Weems loaded the bases in the seventh before surrendering another run on a double play grounder.
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The Nationals (27-34) had seven hits, all singles. They loaded the bases with three singles against Severino to open the eighth; Gallo drove in a run with a sacrifice fly before Jacob Young hit into his second double play of the day.
So Abrams wasn’t alone in his struggles Wednesday. But in the days ahead, the Nationals need him to recapture his early-season success.
“He’s a guy that we need to get on base,” Martinez said. “If he can’t get on base [as the leadoff hitter], then we might have to do something different. … He’s got to start working good at-bats.”
Notes: Josiah Gray (strained right flexor muscle) in all likelihood will make his first rehab start Sunday with low Class A Fredericksburg, Martinez said. Cade Cavalli’s next rehab start is still to be determined. Martinez said the Nationals want to give him a breather as he works back from Tommy John surgery; his most recent rehab start was Thursday for high Class A Wilmington. …
The game started 85 minutes late because of rain but ended in time for the Mets to journey to London, where they will face Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday.
