Herz takes loss in debut, Nats bats shut down by Mets (updated)

DJ Herz’s major league debut wasn’t the fairytale Mitchell Parker experienced two months ago at Dodger Stadium. Neither was it the nightmare suffered by countless other Nationals rookies over the last decade.

Herz wasn’t great in his first career start. Neither was he bad. The rookie left-hander pitched with some confidence, escaped a couple of early jams, then began to succumb as his evening progressed.

In the end, Herz allowed two runs while he was in the game, plus another two that were charged to him after he departed in the top of the fifth. And because his teammates did very little at the plate themselves, he wound up charged with the loss as the Nationals fell 6-3 to the Mets.

"He was a little nervous," manager Davey Martinez said. "He was sweating like crazy out there. But you know what, in big moments he kind of settled down and threw strikes and looked really good."

The Nats hoped for something more akin to Parker’s sparkling April debut in Los Angeles, when the unheralded rookie left-hander struck out Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani, went five strong innings and became the franchise’s first starting pitcher to win his major league debut since Stephen Strasburg.

That’s not what they got from Herz, who arrived with a similar pedigree to Parker and may yet prove as effective as his fellow southpaw but wasn’t quite there tonight.

Summoned from Triple-A Rochester when Trevor Williams was placed on the 15-day injured list with a flexor strain, Herz arrived at Nationals Park around 3:30 p.m. with a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes as the 23-year-old tried to locate his locker. Who knows what thoughts were swirling through his mind over the next three hours as he prepared mentally and physically for the task that awaited him.

"It was different, because it was a big old locker room, and I was just trying to find my locker with my jersey in it," he said. "Seeing it for the first time was surreal."

Herz’s pitching reputation preceded him: Lots of strikeouts, lots of walks, though he’d improved in the latter category quite a bit the last few weeks thanks to some mechanical tweaks and an improved level of comfort in his first season at the Triple-A level.

It was a bit surprising, then, that his debut featured decent command but more hits than Herz usually surrenders. He allowed nine total Mets hitters to reach base, only two of those via walk.

"He wasn't wild," Martinez said. "Everything was in the vicinity (of the plate)."

Herz showed some poise early, overcoming a leadoff double surrendered to Francisco Lindor to escape a scoreless top of the first. He stranded the bases loaded in the third by striking out J.D. Martinez with three straight fastballs.

"I think I definitely settled in," he said. "After I got the first out, I just kind of went from there and pitched my game. Did whatever I had to do to try to put these guys in a situation to win."

The Mets started cashing in after that first trip through the order, though. A leadoff walk of Starling Marte opened the fourth, and two batters later Harrison Bader belted a 1-2 cutter from Herz over the left field fence for a two-run homer.

And when he allowed back-to-back singles to open the fifth, Herz’s night was over at the 75-pitch mark. He handed over the ball to Martinez, who entrusted Derek Law to get out of the inning on the rookie starter’s behalf. Law, though, ran into a recurring problem and allowed both inherited runners – plus one more of his own making – to score before the inning ended. His 13 inherited runners allowed to score are now tied with the Marlins’ Andrew Nardi for most in the majors.

So that meant Herz ultimately was charged with four earned runs in his four-plus innings, a final line that perhaps didn’t tell the entire story of his performance but nonetheless represented the reality of the situation.

"I thought he did really well," Martinez said. "I wanted to keep him at 80 pitches the first time out there. Overall, I thought he threw the ball really well. His fastball was good. His changeup was good. I can't wait to see it again."

The other reality of the situation: It typically requires a much better pitching performance than that to account for the Nationals’ typical lack of offense. It happened again tonight, their lineup completely flummoxed by veteran Mets left-hander David Peterson.

The Nats put only one runner in scoring position prior to the fifth inning. They had only one hit to that point. They finally scored in the fifth on Jacob Young’s two-out RBI single to right. But after a scoreless sixth, they looked up at the scoreboard and saw a mere 64 pitches next to Peterson’s name, a product of some incredibly overanxious swings early in the count and a flurry of groundball outs.

"He's the type of pitcher who pitches to contact, so you're either going to score a bunch on him early, or he's going to have a low pitch count late in the game like he did today," said Young, who accounted for three of the team's six hits and two of the three RBIs. "We're an aggressive team, and we were aggressive to him, and balls just didn't fall."

By night’s end, Nationals hitters put the first pitch of an at-bat in play seven times, managing only two hits in those at-bats while making five outs.

"I really think that we swung at the right pitches," Martinez said. "We missed a lot of pitches. We beat the ball in the ground today. I looked back during the game at some of the pitches we swung at. They were over the heart of the plate. We just hit them in the ground. I don't mind being aggressive when you're swinging at strikes. It's chasing, swinging at balls. We just couldn't get the ball in the air today for some reason."

They managed to push across one run in the seventh, but that was only possible when Jesse Winker was hit by a pitch, was credited with a stolen base when a pickoff attempt went awry and then scored when Joey Gallo’s ground ball caromed off first base and into shallow right field. But with a chance to tie the game with one swing, CJ Abrams popped out and Lane Thomas struck out on a high fastball, leaving the team trailing by three runs heading to the late innings.

Thomas had one last chance to redeem himself with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, representing the tying run. But he lofted a lazy fly ball to right-center to end the game and leave his rookie starter to suffer the loss, even if he was all smiles afterward.

"It was amazing," Herz said. "The adrenaline was pumping, and everybody was very welcoming. It was an awesome first day. Man, I'm tired right now. But it was a great day."