Washington Nationals Rookie Does What Coaches Emphasized in Huge Game
The Washington Nationals were led to victory against the Atlanta Braves on the back of a stellar performance from a rookie pitcher.
DJ Herz had a five-inning night in which he gave up only one hit and no runs. He also struck out eight batters.
His ERA is down to 3.84 on the year after being north of 5.00 after his first month.
"The big thing for him is the strike zone,” said Nationals manager Dave Martinez per MLB's Rick Farlow. “We talk about it all the time. The first inning over the last couple of starts has been rough, but he seems to settle down a little bit and he starts throwing strikes and utilizing his pitches."
Whenever Herz gets ahead of batters, he dominates. Entering the game, hitters were slashing just .116/.125/.232 against him. That line jumps all the way up to .333/.500/.492 when batters get ahead.
"It’s about getting the ball close to the zone because his stuff is really good. If he gets too erratic, that’s when he gets in trouble. When he keeps the ball in the zone, he gets a lot of swings and misses.”
He's only gotten ahead of pitchers 12 more times than they've gotten ahead of him. The slashing line only drops .329/.337/.585 when the count is even, so getting ahead is massively important. He threw a first-pitch strike to 11 of the 20 batters he faced on Sunday.
"It all happens just by attacking the zone,” said Herz after the game. “When I’m attacking the zone and settled in, it all plays. I’m not chasing anything, I'm just letting it happen.”
As a whole, the 23-year-old has looked to be settling into being the pitcher that Washington was hoping he would when they selected him in the eighth round of the 2019 MLB draft.
Over five seasons in the minor leagues, Herz had a 3.67 ERA with 12.8 K/9. He didn't give up a ton of hits or home runs, but had a big issue with walks.
While he still walks one or two batters an outing, it's still better than it looked in the minor leagues.
The southpaw had an ERA of just 2.52 over his five starts in the month of August. If he can continue on working ahead of the count early on, his ceiling could continue growing higher than it already is.
Having a young pitcher breaking out right now is coming at the perfect time for a franchise looking to focus on the future.
