Stolen bases continue to plague Nats, Meneses gets night off

HOUSTON – It was easily forgotten, because of what transpired moments later, but prior to the controversial ending of Wednesday night’s game, the Nationals put themselves in an especially disadvantageous position when they allowed Kyle Tucker to steal third off them without even attempting to throw him out.

Tucker, leading off second base with one out in the bottom of the ninth of what was at that point a tie game, took off for third as Hunter Harvey delivered his pitch to the plate and slid in safely as catcher Keibert Ruiz could do nothing but watch from his position.

It may not have mattered, because Harvey proceeded to walk Corey Julks and then surrendered the grounder by Jake Meyers that scored the winning run when Meyers wasn’t called for interfering with Ruiz’s throw to first. But it stuck with manager Davey Martinez, who has grown tired of seeing that type of play happen against his team over and over this season.

“It definitely matters,” Martinez said. “In a situation like that … we’ve got to keep the guy on first base or second base, wherever he may be.”

This has become a disturbing, regular pattern for the Nationals, who enter tonight’s game having surrendered 67 stolen bases (tied for third-most in the majors) while throwing out only 15 runners. The problem is more acute in late innings, with Harvey, Kyle Finnegan, Mason Thompson, Carl Edwards Jr. and Andrés Machado having combined to allow 20-of-22 opposing runners successfully steal of them.

Though Ruiz (and backup Riley Adams) have had a few opportunities to throw out some of those runners, Martinez overwhelmingly places the onus on his pitchers to be better holding runners on and never letting them get such big jumps.

“Look, I don’t like messing with those back-of-the-bullpen guys, because they’ve got such a routine,” Martinez said. “But it’s all about the holds. If you can hold for three seconds, hold for five seconds, hold for 12 seconds now until the clock runs out … we’ve got to learn how to mix up holds. And every now and then, if just once or twice you’re a little quicker, it’ll shut that down. You can’t get into a repetition of doing the same thing over and over again. You’ve got to mix and match and hold for two seconds, hold for five seconds, bump and go. That’s stuff we can control and we can do.”

Martinez has been saying this for weeks, harping on the issue every time his team allows another uncontested stolen base. How, then, does he finally get the message across to a pitching staff that doesn’t seem to be learning from its mistakes?

“It’s about working at it, which they do, in the bullpen,” Martinez said. “I think what ends up happening in a high-leverage situation, they’re so geared up to attacking the hitter. And in that moment, my big thing is for them to attack the hitter. Focus on the hitter. But I’ve seen it so many times when you’re worried about the baserunner, you throw a pitch where you don’t want to throw it, and all of a sudden we’re down two runs, one run. I want him to really focus on the hitter. Don’t change anything with your mechanics, but just vary your times, vary your looks and use the clock as long as you can.”

* Joey Meneses has a rare day off tonight. The 31-year-old designated hitter has been in the lineup for 63 of the Nationals’ first 66 games this season, two of his previous days off coming while he was on paternity leave following the birth of his first son.

As he did with second baseman Luis García on Wednesday, Martinez wanted to give Meneses a chance to catch his breath and take the night off, with a tough schedule looming that includes no more off-days for the team until June 29. Martinez also wanted to make sure Meneses is back in the lineup Friday night when the Nats face the Marlins and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara.

It’s been a challenge for Meneses to learn how to handle full-time DH duties for the first time in his career, but Martinez sees signs of improvement in that department.

“He’s definitely getting better,” the manager said. “He’s starting to understand what he needs to do in between innings, how he wants to approach things. I’ve seen a big difference from him when he started the season as a DH and didn’t know what to do. He seems a lot calmer in the dugout in between (at-bats) and not all over the map. He’s watching videos of the guys he’s going to face. And he’s giving us good at-bats. It’s nice to see him make adjustments and get better at it.”

* The Nationals unveiled their pitching plan for the weekend, with Jake Irvin returning to the rotation after having his last turn skipped. The rookie right-hander is scheduled to start Saturday, slotting right back into the No. 5 spot after Trevor Williams and before Patrick Corbin, who also will face Miami this weekend in D.C.