On Meneses' slow start, Ward's big out and starters' improvement

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Despite his torrid two months at the plate after he made his long-awaited major league debut last season, Joey Meneses entered this year as a huge unknown for the Nationals.

Were those two months, as impressive as they were, enough evidence to support the idea the 30-year-old is legitimately a top-tier hitter at this level? Or was he bound to come back to earth, proving why it took so long for him to reach the big leagues in the first place?

Two weeks in, it would be easy to assume the latter based on Meneses’ stats. Dig a little deeper, though, and there seems to be reason to believe his results are due to improve sooner rather than later.

Meneses enters today’s series finale against the Angels batting only .238 (10-for-42) with a .289 on-base percentage, .333 slugging percentage, zero homers and only one RBI in 12 games played. It’s been an admittedly frustrating start to his season.

“Obviously I’m not happy or satisfied with the results so far, in terms of the numbers,” he said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “But that’s baseball, and that’s how baseball goes. I just need to stay focused and keep working.”

Meneses might just be right. Consider his peripheral stats, the ones that show how he’s hitting the ball, not just the end results.

Meneses’ hard-hit rate (46.9 percent) is nearly identical to last year’s mark (47.1 percent). Same for his strikeout rate (22.2 percent this year, 21.7 percent last year) and walk rate (6.7 percent this year, 6.3 percent last year). He’s swinging at roughly the same percentage of pitches in the zone and out of the zone, and actually making more contact.

His average exit velocity is slightly down (89.6 mph this year, 91.4 mph last year), as is his launch angle (8.2 percent this year, 9.5 percent last year). But he’s actually hitting way more line drives with fewer ground balls and fly balls.

So where’s the big difference? It’s the location of Meneses’ batted balls. He’s hitting it to the opposite field way more (40.6 percent this year, 27.9 percent last year) instead of pulling it (only 25 percent this year, 34.3 percent last year). That may account for some of his reduced power numbers.

Opposing pitchers do seem to be coming inside on him more, busting him in on the hands. Meneses will have to prove he can turn on those pitches and drive them to left field instead of fighting them off to the right side.

But for the most part, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, there’s a good chance he’ll start seeing better results, commensurate with the kind of contact he’s been making since Opening Day.

* Thaddeus Ward got thrust into a huge spot in Tuesday night’s game and not only survived but thrived.

The 26-year-old reliever, the No. 1 pick in last winter’s Rule 5 draft, had only made two appearances through the season’s first 11 games. And both appearances came with the Nationals trailing by a sizeable margin.

This time, though, manager Davey Martinez summoned Ward to face Luis Rengifo with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth, the Nats trailing 2-0 and trying to keep the game close enough to mount a comeback. It was his first high-leverage assignment, and he responded by striking out Rengifo with a 2-2 “sweeper,” then bounding off the mound with excitement.

“I liked him in that spot,” Martinez said. “He came in, and I told him just throw strikes. He managed to pound the strike zone, and then he did well for us for a couple innings.”

Indeed, he did. Ward returned to pitch a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh, then faced two more batters in the bottom of the eighth, allowing his lone hit but getting Mike Trout to fly out to right before he was pulled.

* Nationals starters have now gone at least five innings in 11 of their 12 games this season, tied with the Royals and Twins for most such starts in the majors.

The only starter not to complete five frames was Patrick Corbin, who failed to record an out in the fourth inning on Opening Day. That means the last 11 starters have all recorded at least 15 outs, if not more.

It’s an impressive turnaround from last season, when the Nationals rotation was among baseball’s worst at providing length. The Nats ranked 28th in the majors with only 94 starts of at least five innings. Coincidentally, the Twins ranked last with only 92.