Turner gets first opportunity to bat third (Nats lose 8-2)

TAMPA, Fla. - Davey Martinez has been talking about it much of the winter and through the first two weeks of the spring. Today the Nationals manager will finally see his unconventional lineup idea in action: Trea Turner is batting third against the Yankees.

It's not a perfect way to evaluate this lineup wrinkle, because only three players guaranteed to be in the opening day lineup (Turner, Victor Robles, Starlin Castro) made the 3 1/2-hour trip from West Palm Beach for today's exhibition game. But today's game does offer Martinez his first opportunity to see how a 1-2-3 of Robles, Adam Eaton and Turner could work come the regular season.

"I'm excited about it. Let's see what happens," the manager said. "It's only February in spring training, but it's fun to see these guys. These guys could be electric: Robles, Eaton, Turner. It could be something exciting."

With no obvious replacement for the departed Anthony Rendon in the No. 3 spot in the lineup, Martinez has been toying with the notion of moving Turner out of the leadoff spot and giving him an opportunity to be more of a run-producer than a table-setter. There is logic to it: Turner had 61 extra-base hits last season, more than Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Rizzo, Ryan Braun and Manny Machado despite missing six weeks with a broken index finger that never fully healed even after he returned.

Turner, who often hit second or third in college and in the minors and who actually hit sixth for Martinez's first game as Nationals manager in 2018, has been open to the idea all along.

"He's embraced it," Martinez said. "I talk to him a lot about how he's still a guy who gets us going. But we'll see how it works out."

The fear of moving Turner out of the leadoff spot, of course, is that it will limit his opportunities to steal bases, not wanting to run in front of Juan Soto and encourage opponents to intentionally walk the slugger.

"That's my biggest issue," Martinez said. "Because we want him to get up there and go do his thing."

So there may be days when Martinez decides to keep Turner atop the lineup and put Castro or Ryan Zimmerman in the 3-hole. But, as the manager points out: "We need somebody to drive in runs and also get on base for Juan."

Though most of the Nationals' regulars stayed back in West Palm Beach today, Martinez did want to make sure Turner, Castro and Carter Kieboom all made the trip together so they could start to get time working together in the infield.

It's something Martinez wants to do as much as possible this spring, giving his projected second baseman, shortstop and third baseman as many opportunities to get comfortable with each other before the season begins.

"I want these guys to play together," the manager said. "I want Carter, when a ball's hit to him on double plays, to have Starlin at second. See how they work together."

The Nationals don't have one of their regulars at first base today, but they could have a big one playing tomorrow. Martinez said Zimmerman (the lone major league position player who has yet to see game action this spring) will make his debut Thursday against the Astros, provided he came out of this morning's workout in West Palm Beach feeling fine.

Meanwhile, relievers Sean Doolittle and Daniel Hudson each threw 33-pitch bullpen sessions today and are close to being game-ready. Martinez said he'll check with both pitchers Thursday, but he believes they'll each likely throw one session of live batting practice before debuting in a game.

Update: Joe Ross couldn't have looked much better in his spring debut. The right-hander retired all six batters he faced (all Yankees regulars) on 24 pitches (16 strikes). He threw first-pitch strikes to five of those six batters. His fastball was 93-94 mph. All in all, a really solid first time out for the contender for the No. 5 starter's job. And he departed with a 2-0 lead, provided by Raudy Read, who crushed a two-run homer off Masahiro Tanaka in the top of the second.

Update II: Things fell apart when the game reached the third inning. In multiple ways. David Hernandez replaced Ross on the mound and gave up six runs, though two of those were unearned. That's because Kieboom committed his second error of the young spring, airmailing a throw to first after he charged in to field a chopper to third. And because Robles airmailed a throw to third after pump-faking a throw to the plate on a routine sacrifice fly for another error. More concerning: Robles was wincing and appeared to be favoring his left side after that odd play. He remains in the game, but it's something to keep an eye on. Nats now trail 6-2 in the fourth. Oh, and it's raining.

Update III: The Yankees added two runs off Tanner Rainey in the fourth, and the game was called in the fifth because of the rain. Final score: Yankees 8, Nats 2.