With lost off-day, Martinez finding some rest for Nats

Two weeks ago, the Nationals were looking at this date on the calendar and expecting to spend their off-day in sunny San Diego. But because of the postponement of the June 8 finale against the Diamondbacks due to the poor air quality from the Canada wildfires, they’re instead still in cloudy D.C. ready to play an early afternoon makeup game.

That made for an odd schedule this week to end this seven-game homestand before the team embarks on a nine-game road trip, which starts with six consecutive games on the West Coast. They had a late afternoon start on Monday for the Juneteenth federal holiday. They had another 4 p.m. start yesterday as it was still a getaway day for the Cardinals, who had a transatlantic flight to London to play two games against the Cubs. And now they have this early afternoon game against the D-backs, who arrived from Milwaukee last night and will also travel back to the West Coast tonight.

The lost off-day means the Nationals are in the middle of a stretch with games scheduled for 16 straight days. So Davey Martinez has to get creative in finding ways to give guys some rest.

“This would have been a nice day off for us, obviously,” the skipper said during his pregame press conference. “And it would have been in San Diego, which is kind of nice. But you know what, we got to play today. So I know these guys will be ready to play. But finding days off, we played so many days in a row.”

Today’s lineup against the Diamondbacks and left-handed starter Tommy Henry features some regulars getting the day off and some others playing in different positions.

Keibert Ruiz remains in the lineup but as the designated hitter, while Riley Adams starts behind the plate. That gives Joey Meneses the day off, joining Dominic Smith, who yields first base to Michael Chavis.

“I wanted to give Joey a day,” Martinez said. “He's kind of in a little bit of a funk right now, so just kind of give him a mental day. Keibert is actually swinging the bat really good right-handed, so I want to make sure that he gets some, you know I wanted to play Riley because of the day game, but make sure he still gets his at-bats against lefties.”

Meneses is only 5-for-30 (.167) over his last eight games. Meanwhile, Ruiz is slashing .273/.319/.470 in games started by an opposing left-hander and Adams is slashing .346/.452/.654 with a 1.105 OPS against southpaws.

“Look, Joey has been doing really well for us, so having him out of the lineup is kind of hard,” Martinez said. “But also, too, I want to make sure I take care of Joey as well. And I know, like I said, he's kind of fallen into a little bit of a funk here in the last few days. So I just want to give him kind of a mental break. He's been out there almost every day. So it's just kind of a reset for him today.”

With this tough stretch and a lot of travel, Martinez is keeping his regulars in mind and giving guys on the bench an opportunity to play. It’s a long season, which isn’t even halfway done yet, and the weather is only going to get hotter.

“Another guy that's gonna get the day off is Dom,” he said. “He's been playing great defense for us, getting big hits for us, so he gets a day off today as well. But we kind of have to mix in these days, especially now that it's starting to get a little bit warmer. So you'll probably see more of that in the future.”

“I've said this before: It's tough to play one day, nevertheless 162 days, in the major leagues right now. You got so many different things going on. But rest is a big thing. It really is. I learned a lot a couple of years ago about what an athlete goes through and how to prepare him to be his best every day. And rest is one of the things. So we're gonna try to, especially with some of these younger guys, try to give them days off when we can. But I also want to see how they get through it, mentally and physically.”