“You know how much I really like when they come in and they walk the first hitter of an inning,” Davey Martinez joked, in praising the Washington Nationals’ relievers’ work last Friday night in the one win of three in Milwaukee this past weekend.
If there’s one thing Martinez does. not. like, it’s when pitchers, starters or relievers, get in a game, and start walking batters rather than throwing strikes, pounding the strike zone, and challenging hitters and getting outs.
After Friday night’s game, which saw both Mason Thompson and Kyle Finnegan walk hitters, Thompson when he came back out for a second inning of work in the eighth, after getting a couple outs in the seventh, and walked the leadoff batter before he was replaced, and then the closer, Finnegan, who walked the leadoff man in the ninth before retiring three straight in a 4-1 win.