It was a Sunday afternoon in Boston to forget for Victor Robles after a pair of mental errors cost the Washington Nationals a 3-2 loss to the Red Sox. A kind of brain fart that can’t happen to big leaguers who have to work to stay focused for every pitch Nats GM Mike Rizzo said during his weekly appearance on Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
Robles had a rough time at Fenway Park over the weekend costing the Nationals a game when he dropped a shallow pop-up in the outfield and ran into an out on the bases when he ran to a third base that was already occupied by Riley Adams. Rizzo agreed the base running blunder was, “definitely” a brain fart.
“Those are things you have to be cognizant of where we’re at in the game, who’s running in front of you, I know [first base coach Gerardo Parra] told him who was running in front of him,” Rizzo said, referencing the slow-footed Adams. “It was a base hit directly at the right fielder with Riley Adams at second base. Almost immediately you have to figure he’s not going to send Riley Adams in that situation.
“But Victor he was running hard, he had his head down, though. And didn’t look up in time and that’s a mistake on him. It’s happened way too often and [manager Davey Martinez] addressed it with him. He’s just gotta get better at it.”
Defensively there have been some issues for Washington, as they committed three errors in the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox with Eddie Rosario and Adams committing throwing errors and Trey Lipscomb committing a fielding error, his seventh on the year.
"Defensively we've gotta sure it up," the GM told the Junkies. "Too many errors recently after the first month of being an elite defensive team we’ve been making too many errors, so that’s something that we’re aware of and we’re making the players aware of it. As the season pushes on the more fatigue sets in the more you have to focus and concentrate on those routine balls each and every pitch.
“You should be exhausted after the game, mentally and physically. Because every pitch… you’re on defense for 140-150 pitches, every pitch you need to be engaged and that’s tiring and exhausting, and at times when you take that pitch off, oftentimes that ball finds you. And that’s where your errors happen, even the physical errors are more focus-based and mental than physical.
“That’s something that young infielders like Lipscomb has to figure out and [CJ] Abrams and [Luis] Garcia. And Ricky Gutiérrez and Miguel Cairo work with those guys constantly, every day, we took a long infield yesterday even during the doubleheader and we’ll certainly take one in Philadelphia.”
Rizzo said that the club does cutoffs and relays once a homestand, take infield and groundballs every day, and then they do a “massive infield” at least once a series for guys to get their work in.
“It’s tough to practice because you are playing every day and you’re tired, but when you’re tired is when you have to do these fundamentals,” Rizzo said, adding “It’s much more game orientated” to practice when tired than just “taking a ground ball at three in the afternoon.”
Listen to the full conversation between Rizzo and The Junkies – which includes talk about Abrams at the plate, Erick Fedde's return to the MLB, and much more – on the audio player above.
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