Crews battling through first slump as major leaguer

A simple ground ball single up the middle may never have felt so good to Dylan Crews.

The Nationals rookie needed that eighth-inning base hit Sunday in Chicago to snap out of the worst slump of his brief big league career, perhaps the worst slump he’s experienced in a long time at any level of the sport.

Crews had been hitless in his previous 19 at-bats before that sharp grounder past Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, a slump that left him staring at a .196 batting average across 106 major league plate appearances. The single didn’t really mean much during his team’s 5-0 loss, but it did at least get that average back over the Mendoza Line.

Heading into the final week of the season, Crews is trying to rediscover his swing. It may be too late to salvage his rookie stat line, but it might do some wonders for his confidence heading into the offseason.

“He’s really fighting through some things,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I’m proud of him, because he’s going to give you everything he has. We’ve just got to get him to slow down a little bit, stay behind the baseball a little bit better.”

The 22-year-old outfielder impressed in his first two weeks in the majors, slugging .512 with three doubles, three homers and six walks in his first 11 games. Then teams began to feed him a steady diet of breaking balls and changeups, and the results have plummeted.

Over his last 14 games, Crews is batting just .182 and slugging just .200, with only one extra-base hit. More telling, he has drawn only two walks while striking out 15 times.

The Nationals have been working with Crews on leveling out his swing more. They see a dip in his back shoulder, which doesn’t allow him to keep the bat through the strike zone as long. And the dip isn’t leading to more fly balls. He’s actually pounding it into the ground with too much regularity: a 59.7 percent groundball rate, more than 15 points more than league average.

The issues with breaking balls have really come to light. Crews is seeing four-seam fastballs only 27.4 percent of the time; he’s batting .385 and slugging .846 against that pitch. He’s seeing all versions of breaking balls (curveballs, sliders, sweepers, slurves) 39.8 percent of the time, and he’s batting a meager .059 against them without a single extra-base hit.

“We talked to him a lot about just staying in the middle of the field,” Martinez said. “The base hit to the middle of the field (Sunday) was great. And really trying to stay focused on staying through the ball as much as possible. But he’ll get it. He’s got some good actions with his hands, his legs.

“It’s just a matter of time. Here’s a guy that chases down in the zone. They’re throwing him a lot of sliders. He’s got to understand with two strikes, he’s got to see the ball up a little bit.”