Starlin Castro and Davey Martinez have a ritual exchange in advance of each game.
“Every day before the game he’ll come up to me and he goes, ‘Don’t worry, I got you,’” the fourth-year skipper told reporters last month. “And I said, ‘Hey, I’m good. I don’t worry. I know you got me, or else you wouldn’t be playing third base.’ So I said, ‘Just go out there relax and have fun.”
Martinez told that story after Castro came through with a two-run single in the top of the ninth inning on June 23rd in Philadelphia, lifting Washington to a 13-12 advantage in what was a back-and-forth battle between the Nationals and Phillies in Citizens Bank Park.