Soto taking Martinez's advice to get on base

Juan Soto did not get extra-base hits or up his RBI total Thursday in the Nationals' 4-0 win at Citi Field against Mets flame thrower Noah Syndergaard. But he did something that was still very important to the offense. Soto walked once and scored two runs, going 1-for-3.

Soto's walk led off the second inning, one of the best examples this season of the Nats manufacturing a run to take an early lead.

Ryan Zimmerman walked to push Soto to second base. A wild pitched from Syndergaard moved Soto to third and Zimmerman to second. Wilmer Difo then laid down a perfect safety squeeze bunt to the left of Syndergaard - just far enough away that it took more time than the pitcher would have wanted to field the ball and record the out. Soto raced home from third and the Nats had a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish.

Earlier this week, manager Davey Martinez reminded Soto that pitchers were not going to give him as many fastballs this season after his incredible debut in the major leagues last year in which he hit 22 homers and contributed 70 RBIs.

In six games this season, Soto has struck out nine times and walked three times. He broke out of mini-doldrums Wednesday with a vintage Soto performance: 3-for-4 with a double, homer and three RBIs in a 9-8 win over the Phillies. He has now drawn a walk in two games in a row.

After Wednesday's game, Soto spoke about how Martinez helped him.

"He told me to be patient at the plate," Soto said. "I've been swinging at a lot of balls and a lot of bad pitches. He told me to be patient and be you. Be like you have been since the first day last year. You've been swinging and strikes, no balls, and take your walk."

It looks like the theme of the league throwing to Soto so far this season has been to try to trick him by throwing more changeups. Is this what Soto sees as well?

"I see they are throwing me a lot of off-speed, like you said. The slider, but more the changeup than anything," Soto said. "But it's like Davey says, most of those pitches are balls. So I start taking. They see I start taking, they don't want to throw any more. Because they know it's a ball and they going to walk me. So I'm going to keep seeing the ball well and keep grinding."

Even with no hits Thursday, Soto is still batting .304 and his on-base percentage is .385. He has three doubles, one homer and five RBIs in these first six games.

Against the Phillies, he doubled on a changeup in his first at-bat, an at-bat that took eight pitches and made Aaron Nola work. In the third, Soto connected on a poorly located Nola four-seam fastball and crushed a three-run shot. He singled on a slider.

In the critical at-bat to begin yesterday's game against the Mets, Soto took two changeups from Syndergaard. The second changeup resulted in the walk. That eventually became the Nats' first run. The at-bat is a good example of Soto returning to the patience and sharp eye that led him to a breakout rookie campaign in 2018.

After Wednesday's game, Soto talked about how the Nats will not give up despite a 1-3 start. The team has rebounded to win two in a row:

"If you see, we fight until the last moment," Soto said. "We never give up, we stay like a team. We take advantage of every error they make. That's what good teams do. They take advantage of everything."