as washington nationals entertain the host kansas city royals Saturday, national Will try to keep their offense rolling
Washington has scored 38 points in its past six games; the Nationals have won four of them. The club hit .330 in that span and is gaining production from all parts of the batting order.
Ryan Thomas homered to lead Friday’s 12-10 win in Kansas City. He reached a career-high 22 consecutive games at safety, hit 20 of 22 games at safety, batted . .
In his last 17 games, Joey Menezes is hitting .375 (27-for-72) with eight extras and 18 RBIs.
In his last 11 games, Jeimer Candelario is hitting .409 (18-for-44) with nine extras, nine runs and eight RBIs.
Luis Garcia leads all of them with five more hits in his last 10 games, tying a franchise record with a career-best six on Friday.
Garcia and national Manager Dave Martinez attributes their success to focusing on hitting from the middle
“My whole approach, every shot, is trying to stay in the middle and also go the other way,” Garcia said.
“We tried to stay in the middle of the field,” Martinez said. “Start trying to get the ball up a little bit and then we did a good job of staying aggressive, staying in the middle of the field and hitting straight balls.”
Washington will try to stay hot on offense royals Right-hander Brady Singer (3-4, 7.48 ERA), who has never been with national. Only Candelario has ever faced Singer in his time with the Detroit Tigers, with 4 hits in 15 at-bats
national Right-hander Josiah Gray (4-5, 2.65) will be on the mound for the first time against Kansas City.nothing now royals‘ batsman face gray
While Kansas City’s hitters had a good night Friday, they struggled to hit in the clutch, losing 10 of 13 games. royals Score fewer than three points in five of those losses, including two
Before the runner scored 5 hits in 13 at-bats, royals The .224 batting average in those situations ranks 27th in the majors, and they are .207 in their last 13 games
Salvador Perez has the most powerful bat royals Six of his team-leading 11 home runs have tied or given Kansas City the lead this year.Perez hit eight homers in May, one shy of the club record set by Gary Getty in 1995
Before Friday’s game, Kansas City activated outfielder Drew Waters from the 10-day injured list; Nate Eaton was selected for Triple-A Omaha.
Waters has been sidelined since picking up a left oblique muscle strain early in spring training.He hit .327 in 13 rehab games for Omaha and immediately entered the royalsFriday’s lineup, the ninth at-bat, collected a pair of hits and scored twice
“Last year I had to wait a few days for the first (hit),” Waters said. “So, obviously, it’s a good thing to let the first people go.”
–Field-level media