Defensive gaffes by young players irk Martinez

The Nationals lost Friday night's game 8-4 in Atlanta for any number of reasons, but two defensive miscues certainly played a significant role in the final outcome. Miscues by a couple of young players getting an extended look in the big leagues for the first time. Miscues that led to long conversations with the manager at the end of the night.

"Unfortunately, it's going to be a learning process going through this for the next six, seven weeks," manager Davey Martinez said afterward in his Zoom session with reporters, admitting the challenge he and his coaching staff face the rest of this rebuilding season. "They're going to learn, and man, we're going to pound it until they do."

In this case, the mistakes came from catcher Tres Barrera in the bottom of the fifth and second baseman Luis García in the eighth. Each directly led to runs crossing the plate. And each was preventable.

First up is Barrera, a 25-year-old rookie catcher getting a chance to play nearly every day following Yan Gomes' trade to the Athletics and Alex Avila's lengthy stint on the injured list. With two outs and nobody on in the fifth, the Nationals actually leading 3-2 at the time, Erick Fedde got Jorge Soler to hit a grounder to third on his first pitch.

Except Carter Kieboom never made the throw to first. That's because he saw the signal from plate umpire John Libka, who correctly noted Soler's bat struck Barrera's mitt before making contact with the ball. That's catcher's interference, and the batter is immediately awarded first base while the catcher is charged with an error.

It's a fluky play, but one that wasn't entirely out of Barrera's hands.

"The catcher's interference is something that, as a catcher, you've got to know," Martinez said. "Soler is up there, and he's a big guy with a long swing. You can't sit as deep with him up there, because he does have that long swing. And Tres likes to get up underneath hitters. So it's something that he's got to learn. You've got to adjust to every hitter. You've got to know which hitters have those swings like that."

This one proved critical because if not for the contact with Barrera's mitt, Soler would've made the third out of a 1-2-3 inning. Instead, the Braves' next four batters recorded hits off Fedde, driving in three runs and turning a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead.

Now fast-forward to the bottom of the eighth, the Braves still leading by the same 5-3 margin. Then Freddie Freeman singled to right off Javy Guerra, driving in a pair to extend the lead. And when Austin Riley followed with a popup into shallow right field, the stage was set for another defensive miscue.

García ran from his second base position to try to make the play. At the same time, Gerardo Parra was charging in from right field to try to catch the ball. Ultimately, García made the catch, but because his back was to the plate, Ozzie Albies (waiting on third base) decided to tag up and promptly scored with ease because García wasn't in a good position to make a throw like that.

The fix for such a play was all too simple for a longtime baseball man like Martinez.

"At this level, you should know: A guy on third base, the outfielder calls the ball, the outfielder catches the ball coming in," the manager said. "It's an easier throw for him to home plate. I don't think, with Parra's arm, that Albies even tries to go in that situation."

Martinez met with both García and Parra after the game, and Parra confirmed he was calling for the ball but had to cede way to Garcia when the 21-year-old didn't peel off himself. The manager told the young prospect in no uncertain terms he should always defer to his outfielder in that situation.

"Luis has a lot of upside," Martinez said. "He can swing the bat. He's playing really good defense. But like I've said before: We've got to start doing all the little things right. That's really hurting us right now."

Chalk it up to another aspect of this sudden rebuilding process that is going to be difficult to watch for the immediate future.