Some good and some bad for Robles in Nats' 11-8 setback

Some good, some bad for center fielder Victor Robles in his second game with the Nationals in 2019. The Mets dropped the Nats 11-8 Saturday afternoon. Robles went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. But defensively he was charged with a throwing error and was picked off first base following his base hit.

Defensively, Robles had a tough time making some plays in center field early in the game. He did not get a good read on Jeff McNeil's triple in the first inning that gave the Mets a 3-0 lead. Robles dove into and spiked the right field wall to try to make the catch but could not.

In the second, Pete Alonso's line drive went over his head in center field for an RBI double and a 4-1 Mets lead. It appeared Robles did not get off to a good start racing to the ball and could not catch up in time to record the out.

On base, Robles got caught off of first base after a single in the fifth. Noah Syndergaard fired over to the first baseman Alonso, who tagged Robles on his back for the out.

Robles answered the bell on offense with a line drive solo homer in the third, his first homer of the season, to get the Nats on the board. He also had the base hit later on.

Manager Davey Martinez reminded that in Robles's case we are dealing with a young player who will learn from his mistakes.

"He's going to get better," Martinez said. "You've got to remember he's 21 years old and he's playing in the big leagues. I've been there. I know the struggle. He's going to get better. He talks about it and he wants to get better. Just a case where instead of breaking back he came straight up before and the ball was hit hard. I like his intensity. I like the way he's swinging the bat. And he's going to get better out there."

Robles did not appear in the clubhouse after the game when reporters were present.

Martinez said he does see a little bit of pressing from his center fielder. On the pickoff, Martinez said, the coaching staff warned him about the possibility of a Syndergaard move to first to try to get him leading off the bag.

"He's just a young kid just trying right now to piece it all together," Martinez cautioned. "And it's going to come. I watch him. He wants to do a little more right now. It's two games. When he got on first base, we told him, watch the pickoff and he got picked off. Little things like that, we're going to clean it up with him. But what I see is someone who's going to help us win a lot of games."

Martinez elected to not challenge the play after seeing the putout again on video replay.

"They said his hand was up in the air when he tagged him," Martinez acknowledged.

It was the second time in as many games that Robles had been caught off a base. On opening day, Robles was caught in a rundown in the bottom of the third and was tagged out between third and home plate in a play that turned into a twin killing and ended the inning. Robles had doubled to lead off that inning, then went to third on an Adam Eaton single.

But with one out on Anthony Rendon's hot shot to third base, Robles hesitated off the bag instead of racing toward home plate. The third baseman McNeil threw to Robinson Canó at second to begin the double play. Then Canó fired to catcher Wilson Ramos to stop Robles in his tracks. The relay went to McNeil, who then tagged out Robles to end the threat. The Nats were down 1-0 and eventually fell 2-0.

Then on defense in the top of first on Saturday, Martinez felt that Robles should have thrown to second base on a single by Michael Conforto to center field. Instead, Robles threw to third and starter Stephen Strasburg could not come up with the hard throw. Runners ended up safe at second and third. Ramos followed with a two-run double and it was 2-0. Robles was charged with an error to allow the runners to advance to scoring position.

"We wanted him to throw the ball to second base," Martinez said. "Don't let the runner advance."

But Martinez said he was still not going to overreact with some problems with creeping up in the first two contests.

"We're looking at maybe one or two things that happened," Martinez said. "But I'm also seeing some good things. It's two games. We would have liked to have won both. We have tomorrow."