Hitters need a crash course in timing at the plate

It was kind of understood that pitchers would be ahead of hitters during baseball's first weekend of 2020. Even though pitchers had precious little time build their arms up during a three-week summer camp, hitters had even fewer opportunities to hone their timing against live pitching.

The result hasn't been surprising. Thirty-three times already, a team has been held to two or fewer runs.

"I've seen so many strikeouts over the whole league. You can tell guys aren't really ready," Nationals first baseman Eric Thames said after Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Yankees. "But you can't use that as an excuse. These games count."

They do count, just as much as the games will count in September and even more than games counted in 2019 or any other previous season when the schedule wasn't condensed down to 60 games.

Teams can't afford to lose a close, low-scoring ballgame right now, because every win is precious in 2020.

"There's no taking a few months, then turning it on and taking the division," said Thames, perhaps alluding to what the Nationals did in 2019. "The end of the year is going to come quicker than we think. So every game plays. Every play matters. Every execution matters. So, yeah, we're all taking it pretty personal."

Thames had ample reason to be down on himself late Sunday afternoon. Though he drove in one of the Nats' two runs with a fourth-inning single smoked off first baseman Luke Voit's mitt, Thames twice came up to bat later in the game with a chance to do more damage and in each case struck out to end the inning.

Adding insult to injury, in each instance Thames struck out moments after the Yankees intentionally walked Howie Kendrick.

"I feel like nobody really likes that situation; it's kind of insulting," Thames said. "But it is smart baseball. Howie's hit .340 the last two or three years. And I'm not really seeing the ball well right now. It was smart on their behalf. When I was up there, I was fired up. Let's go. Get a ball up the middle and execute. And then I swung like three light years ahead of the pitch."

He was referring to his eighth-inning strikeout on a changeup from reliever Tommy Kahnle, but the same notion applied to other at-bats.

One of the toughest tasks a hitter faces is finding his timing at the plate, especially when it's the first week of the season. The task is even tougher right now because hitters had only three exhibition games in which they could face opposing pitchers, who are masterfully changing speeds and fooling hitters into taking bad swings.

"Right now, 92 (mph) looks like it's 98," Thames said. "And some guys throw 98 (mph)and it looks like 92. It's kind of like getting your eyes to adapt and getting used to different pitch speeds and different release points. But that all can change within a day or two at-bats. Everybody's different. You've just got to hang with them."