On Abrams' big debut, De La Rosa's moment and Peralta's struggles

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals’ exhibition opener – a 3-2 victory over the Cardinals in Jupiter – was headlined by the debut of MacKenzie Gore and the debut of the pitch clock.

There was a lot more going on over the course of 2 hours, 26 minutes of fast-paced baseball, though. Here’s a look at some other notable developments from the game …

* CJ Abrams had a strong opening performance. The young shortstop got a chance to lead off and proceeded to go 2-for-3 with a single, a double, a stolen base and a strikeout that should’ve been a walk.

Abrams got things going right off the bat in the top of the first, fighting off a 2-1 cutter from Adam Wainwright for an opposite-field single. He then promptly stole second base, putting himself in position to score later on Stone Garrett’s two-out RBI single.

Abrams would add a double down the right field line in the fifth off a 1-2 curveball from left-hander Génesis Cabrera (another good sign). And he seemed to show a keen eye in the top of the second when he took a 3-2 sinker above the letters from Wainwright and started to trot toward first only to be rung up by plate umpire Carlos Torres.

Further examination of the pitch in question confirmed it was high and should’ve led to a walk, so Abrams was the victim of bad luck. Of particular note, though, was this point: Davey Martinez has been saying he wants to see Abrams draw more walks, something that could eventually convince the manager to move him up to the top of the lineup. But what about when Abrams shows the patience to take a high 3-2 pitch but ends up getting penalized for it?

“As you know, we get all this information. It was out of the zone,” Martinez said. “So we told him: ‘Sometimes, you have to just forget it and move onto the next at-bat. You did a great job getting into that position.’ He comes up the next at-bat and rips a double off a tough lefty, which was awesome, with two strikes. Sometimes you can’t control what the umpires are going to do. You can only control what you do. That was a great take.”

* Abrams wasn’t the only member of the lineup who showed an ability to go the other way. All three of the Nationals’ runs came via two-out, opposite-field, RBI singles. Garrett got his in the first, Leonel Valera delivered one in the eighth and Erick Mejia drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth.

“It’s something we’ve been working on a lot,” Martinez said, his face beaming. “We put the ball in play, which is what we talked about, especially early in spring.”

* Jeremy De La Rosa didn’t drive in any runs, but the 21-year-old outfielder made the most of his opportunity to start the exhibition opener.

De La Rosa, who has yet to play above Single-A, just missed a double off Wainwright down the first base line that barely hooked foul. He followed that up with a groundball single up the middle off the 40-year-old right-hander he was facing.

“He’s not afraid,” Martinez said. “He’s going to stand in there and get his hacks. He roped a ball down the line foul, and he didn’t think anything of it, got back in there and got a base hit. He’s going to be OK.”

* Wily Peralta’s first chance to make his case for a spot on the Opening Day pitching staff didn’t go well. The veteran right-hander gave up a quick double to Paul De Jong to open the bottom of the third, then served up a two-run homer to Brendan Donovan moments later on a 1-2 changeup he left up in the zone.

Peralta, signed to a minor-league deal this winter, is trying to win a job either as the Nats’ No. 5 starter (if Cade Cavalli is sent back to the minors or somebody else gets hurt) or as a long reliever. He’ll need better performances than the one he put forth Saturday if he’s going to make a strong case for himself.