As the washington nationals take over the host Kansas City Royals on Saturday, the Nationals Will try to keep his offense rolling
Washington is coming in leaps and bounds with 38 runs in its last six games; the Nats have won four of those games. The club has hit .330 during that span and is getting production from all parts of the batting order.
Lane Thomas homered to lead off Friday’s 12-10 win at Kansas City. He has come safely in a career-high 22 straight games, hitting safely in 20 of 22 and hitting .330 (30-of-91) with seven home runs, 20 runs and 15 RBIs.
In his last 17 games, Joey Meneses is hitting .375 (27-for-72) with eight extra-base hits and 18 RBIs.
Jeimer Candelario is hitting .409 (18-for-44) with nine extra-base hits, nine runs and eight RBIs in his last 11 games.
Topping them all, Luis Garcia has five multi-hit games in his last 10, and tied a franchise record with a career-best six hits on Friday.
Garcia and Nationals manager Dave Martinez attributes his success to a focus on hitting the ball up the middle
“My whole focus, every at-bat, is to try to stay in the middle and go the other way as well,” Garcia said.
“We try to stay in the middle of the field,” Martinez said. “We started trying to get the ball up a bit, and then we did a good job of staying aggressive, staying in the middle of the field, hitting lines.”
Washington will try to stay hot offensively against royalty right-hander Brady Singer (3-4, 7.48 ERA), who has never pitched against Nationals. Only Candelario, while with the Detroit Tigers, has ever faced Singer, with four hits in 15 at-bats.
Nationals Right-hander Josiah Gray (4-5, 2.65) will take the mound for the first time against Kansas City. none of the current royalty‘ batters has faced Gray
While Kansas City’s hitters had a great night Friday, they have struggled to hit in difficult situations and lost 10 of 13. royalty scored fewer than three runs in five of those losses, including a pair of shutouts
Before getting five hits in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position, the royalty had a .224 batting average in those situations and ranked 27th in the majors, and they’ve hit .207 in scoring situations in the last 13 games
Salvador Pérez has owned the most powerful bat in the royalty this year, and six of his team-leading 11 home runs have either tied the game or given Kansas City the lead. Pérez has eight home runs in May, one shy of the club record for the month set by Gary Gaetti in 1995.
Before Friday’s game, Kansas City activated outfielder Drew Waters from the 10-day disabled list; Nate Eaton was optioned to Triple-A Omaha.
Waters had been sidelined since straining his left oblique early in spring training. He hit .327 in 13 rehab games for Omaha and was immediately inserted into the royalty‘ lineup on Friday, batting ninth, where he collected a pair of hits and scored twice
“Last year I had to wait a couple of days for the first (hit),” Waters said. “So obviously it’s good to get the first ones out of the way.”
–Field level media
