Call returns to leadoff spot vs. righty as Abrams works on hitting breaking balls

PHILADELPHIA – With Alex Call’s resurgence at the plate since his call-up from Triple-A Rochester, Nationals manager Davey Martinez has toyed with the idea of platooning him and CJ Abrams in the leadoff spot.

The right-handed Call would lead off against left-handed starting pitchers and the lefty Abrams would lead off against righties.

But tonight, Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola provides the rare exception to that rule. Call will lead off with Abrams hitting second as Martinez tries to exploit Nola’s breaking ball: a knuckle curve he throws 31.8 percent of the time.

“Nola has been tough,” Martinez said during his pregame media session. “He's got the good breaking ball. Alex works good at-bats. See if we can get him on base for the other guys up there. But this is just one of those rarities. I do like Alex against lefties up there. But this is one guy that I really feel like the righties could have a little bit better chance just because of that big breaking ball and big changeup he has.”

Nola is 11-6 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.147 WHIP in 24 starts. But he has almost even batting average splits against righties and lefties. In fact, right-handed hitters are getting on-base at a slightly better rate (.288) than left-handers (.284).

Abrams was bumped from his usual leadoff spot down to the No. 2 hole on Tuesday in Baltimore, with Call taking over leadoff duties against left-handed starter Trevor Rogers. That worked out well for the young shortstop as he finished the night 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

“I put him there the one day against a lefty and he did really well,” Martinez said of Abrams. “He seemed like he was a little bit more patient there. We always talk about the two hole and the four hole, how important it is because there will be some traffic on there for them. So to be able to drive in some runs, I think he can handle it.”

Oddly enough, both Abrams and Call have reverse splits: Abrams hits lefties better (.293 vs. .291) and Call hits righties better (.404 vs. .364).

But the ability to hit breaking balls seems to be the main reason for the lineup switch against Nola. Call hits breaking balls at a .333 clip, while Abrams struggles to the tune of a .163 average against them.

How does Abrams improve against those pitches over the final six weeks of the season?

“The biggest thing with him, when he's really good, he can hit the ball the other way just as far as he does pulling the ball, right?” Martinez said. “So we gotta get him to understand, one, you gotta look for the breaking balls up. You gotta get them in the zone. And two, you can't really try to do too much with them. You just gotta try to hit the ball hard and try to stay on it and try to hit the ball hard up the middle. On occasion, he's gonna get one and he's gonna hit it up in the air and pull it. But he's gotta stay on the baseball.”