Washington Nationals news & notes: Cards walk off with win in finale; Nats take 2 of 3 in St. Louis…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ loss in the series finale with the Cardinals…

HERZDAY IN ST. LOUIS:

DJ Herz returned from an extended rest and a short stint in the minors to make his eighth start in the majors last week, throwing five strong in which the Nationals’ 23-year-old left-hander gave up five hits (two home runs), two walks, and two earned runs, and picked up four strikeouts.

“I was happy, especially with the long rest,” Herz told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, after a 4-0 loss in D.C.

“I just wanted to be sharp today. I pounded the zone, got ahead. I’m happy with how it went.”

“He was good,” manager Davey Martinez said.

“He was good. Gave up two homers, but other than that he was really, really good. He attacked the zone. His stuff was good.”

Herz was also relatively efficient, throwing 79 pitches in the outing before Martinez went to the bullpen.

“Just throwing strikes, getting ahead, utilizing all his pitches,” Martinez said when asked why Herz was efficient as he was.

“Slider was good. Something we talked about him going down and kind of working on it a little bit. It was good.

“Fastball was really good, which was awesome. He did well.”

Herz finished the outing with a 4.95 ERA, a 4.52 FIP, 11 walks (2.72 BB/9), 45 Ks (11.15 K/9), and a .270/.325/.473 line against on the year.

On Sunday in St. Louis, MO’s Busch Stadium, Herz put together another strong, five-inning, 79-pitch outing, walking one, striking out eight, and giving up three hits (one a homer), and two runs.

Willson Contreras ambushed Herz on a first-pitch fastball in the home-half of the first, with a 406 ft. shot which landed in the third deck in left field, 1-0, and the Cards scored in the next inning, with a two-out walk to Lars Nootbar and RBI triple by Pedro Pagés (deflected in right field by a sliding Lane Thomas), 2-0.

Herz finished strong, however, retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced, seven via strikeout.

He got 18 swinging strikes overall, 15 on his fastball, with 8 of 13 called strikes on his heater as well, leaning on it for a full 62% of his pitches to the Cardinals, up from a season average of 54.2%.

“He didn’t rely on his offspeed stuff,” Martinez said after his club dropped a back-and-forth affair on a walk-off home run by Paul Goldschmidt off Dylan Floro in the ninth.

“[Herz] got ahead and stayed with the fastball. It was good. Our reports were to try to get the ball up on some of these guys, and he did a great job — especially those lefties — he did a great job.

“After the home run and the double/triple whatever you want to call it, he was very, very effective.”

Trailing 2-0 to the Cardinals after two, the Nationals tied things up with an RBI groundout by CJ Abrams and an RBI double by Lane Thomas making it 2-2 in the third, and Juan Yepez hit a sac fly to right with James Wood (triple) on third in the sixth, 3-2, before the home team tied it up with an RBI single by Michael Siani in the bottom of the seventh, 3-3, and then got the walk-off winner from Goldschmidt on a fastball up and in from Floro, who hadn’t allowed a home run all season (or since Sept. 11, 2023, a stretch of 54 ¹⁄₃ innings between homers).

Floro got the final out of the seventh, tossed a 1-2-3 eighth, then returned to the mound for another batter, but gave up the game-winning blast on his 15th pitch.

“We had [Jose A. Ferrer] up for the lefties coming up [Brendan Donovan and Nootbar],” the Nats’ skipper explained after the game.

“We just wanted to try to get that one hitter [Goldschmidt], he had a very limited pitch count. He said he felt fine. He just left the ball up.”

Martinez’s club did manage to take 2 of 3 from the Cardinals in the series, so their manager was happy with the performance overall on the weekend.

“Overall, I can’t be disappointed, because we played really well this series, [against] a really good team, too. We’ve just got to come back tomorrow and try to go 1-0 tomorrow. But we missed some opportunities.

“I can’t say enough about what Floro has been doing. I think that’s the first home run he’s given up in I don’t know how many innings, but he’s been pitching really well.

“We got to come back and battle again tomorrow.”