While still searching for his first hit, Nats want Rutherford to relax

PHILADELPHIA – Blake Rutherford waited seven years to make his major league debut. Now he’s been waiting seven days for his first major league hit.

It’s a tough hurdle to cross for any player in his first taste of the majors. You have to find that perfect balance of staying true to your form while not pressing too much if it doesn’t come right away.

Rutherford is still hitless in his first five games with the Nationals. He’s been platooning in left field with Stone Garrett against right-handed starting pitchers, so he’ll likely get his next chance at his first knock tonight against A’s righty Paul Blackburn.

Five games over one’s first week in the majors is not enough of a sample size to make any judgements. The Nats will still give him plenty of opportunities in the near future. They just want to see him relax more.

“He definitely wants to get that one hit right away,” said manager Davey Martinez. “We need to get him to relax and hopefully … he gets that out of the way. Once you get that one, you kind of relax and drop your shoulders a little bit. But we're really trying to get him to relax.”

Rutherford can hit. He was the 18th overall pick by the Yankees out of high school in 2016 and a former top-50 prospect. After he signed a minor league deal with the Nats over the offseason, he slashed .341/.390/.612 in 32 games with Double-A Harrisburg. Then he slashed .349/.400/.547 over 30 games with Triple-A Rochester to earn him his first promotion to the big leagues.

“He hit really well in Triple-A and we feel like he can hit here,” Martinez said. “But like I said, we're trying to get that first one out of the way. It's tough. It's gonna happen. I tell him, 'Hey, it's gonna happen. So just give yourself a chance to go up there and try to hit the ball hard somewhere.' But he's gonna get a chance to play.”

Those chances will come easier once he starts putting wood to leather and seeing some balls drop in the field, ideally in some run-scoring opportunities. While hitting in the bottom of the lineup (which is littered with struggling bats right now, by the way), Rutherford is 0-for-3 with a strikeout with runners in scoring position.

Again, small sample size and it’s not just him, so no judgment. The Nats just don’t want to see the pressure of recording his first hit weighing on him.

“I don't really think so,” Martinez said if he’s noticed the pressure getting to the young outfielder. “He's a fairly quiet kid. But he comes in and he's got a good routine. I watch his routine in the cage and stuff. And like I said, he's hit, and he was really hitting the ball really well in Triple-A. So just like I said, for me, it's all about getting yourself ready, be on time and try to stay in the middle of the field and not try to do too much. That's what we want him to do. Just try to stay in the middle of the field and not try to do a whole lot. Just give yourself a chance to square a ball up.”

Rutherford’s process and preparation of fine from the manager’s point of view. Maybe all he needs now is a little bit of luck to get him going.

“He's been fine, he really has,” Martinez said. “He works hard. He asks a lot of questions, which is great. He's out there and positions himself well on defense. He follows the game plan. So, he's doing OK. Like I said, let's try to get him that first hit out of the way and see where we go from there.”