Abrams enjoying strong trip, Hill trying not to press at plate

SEATTLE – Davey Martinez’s tirade against Doug Eddings last week after the longtime umpire ejected the Nationals manager for arguing balls and strikes generated plenty of video clicks and chuckles from all who watched the replay. Martinez understood that would happen when he got down on his hands and feet and mockingly “caught” a pitch two inches off the ground to show Eddings just how low his strike zone was.

Martinez’s real concern in that moment, and in the days since, though, was how CJ Abrams would respond to it. It was a low strike three call to Abrams that initiated the firestorm in the first place, and Martinez worried his young shortstop would change his approach because of it.

After weeks of work to lay off pitches below his knees, Abrams was starting to show a better eye at the plate. Would that no longer be the case if he was taking those pitches and still striking out due to overeager umpires?

“He’s young, and whenever he gets a call that’s controversial, you see that he tends to expand a little bit more,” Martinez said. “We have to always tell him: ‘Do not let the umpires dictate what you’re trying to do up there. Understand who you are, and understand the pitch you’re looking for. And stay in the zone.’”

The evidence since last week’s incident has actually been encouraging. Abrams has continued to produce good at-bats during this West Coast trip, and he enters tonight’s game against the Mariners batting .393 (11-for-28) with three doubles and a homer over his last eight games.

He still strikes out at times, four times in his last 11 at-bats, but when he makes contact, he’s making solid contact.

“When he doesn’t chase, he hits the ball really hard,” Martinez said. “When he stays on top of the baseball, he hits the ball really hard. We talk about him trying to hit hard line drives. His balls go up in the air when he does that, and not get underneath the ball. He does well when he does that. The big thing for him is to get the ball in the strike zone.”

* Derek Hill tonight makes his seventh consecutive start in center field, firmly establishing his place as Victor Robles’ replacement in the lineup while the latter is on the injured list. The 27-year-old was called up from Triple-A Rochester on Wednesday, thrown into the lineup and hasn’t been removed since.

Defensively, there hasn’t been any drop-off from Robles to Hill, who covers a lot of territory in center field and even managed to hold onto the ball after colliding with the much larger Stone Garrett for the final out of Sunday’s win in San Diego.

Offensively, Hill is still trying to find his footing. After going 4-for-11 in his first three games, he’s hitless in his last 12 at-bats. It’s made for a frustrating week for Hill, who earned his promotion by hitting .324/.381/.533 in 48 games with Rochester but hasn’t been able to carry over that success since his call-up.

“The first few weeks when those guys come up, you always want to leave (a positive) impression,” Martinez said. “I talked to him about just relaxing. You’ve had a good year so far at Triple-A. Don’t just try to do too much. Just come up here and play the game the way we think you can play, and that’s being a situational guy, where you move the baseball, get on base, steal bases for us and play really good defense for us.”