Notes and quotes on Stone Garrett’s big game against the Phillies last night in Nationals Park…
Stone Garrett suffered a broken left fibula and a torn ligament in his ankle on a play at the wall in Yankee Stadium late in August of 2023, but he was back on the field this past spring. He’d worked hard over the winter to have a shot at picking up where he left off before the injury.
“He’s worked really hard,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters after Garrett got the call to return to the majors when Andrés Chaparro went on the Paternity List this week.
“That first injury — when that injury occurred, it was pretty nasty,” the skipper said of the gruesome break.
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“When I saw him in Spring Training doing all the stuff he did,” Martinez told reporters this week, “I thought, man, that’s incredible, a testament to how hard he’s worked, but it’s taken him a long time to really get it right. And so to have him come back here with us for a few days, it’s awesome. He’s that guy. He works his tail off to get himself ready, to help. He spent all year just trying to get better and really trying to get his leg right, so I’m proud of him. He worked his way back which is great.”
Though he still had work to do in the end, the fact that Garrett progressed as much as he did between August and February/March impressed his manager.
“I saw him in Spring Training and literally my mouth dropped to see him doing the things that he was doing,” Martinez said, “.. but he’s very adamant [about] wanting to come back and play. When I talked to him at the end of spring, I told him, ‘You just need to really get right. I know you want to come back, you want to, but just go out and play baseball and get yourself right,’ because it was a really bad injury. But I’m glad he’s here and it’s good to see him.”
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Having Garrett around again, playing alongside some of the organization’s young, highly-regarded prospects, is a benefit for everyone.
“He was that guy last year that was — he did really well for us — he was that kind of quiet leader towards the end there, so yeah, he’s that guy,” Martinez explained.
“He walks in the room and he has that presence about him. So there was a lot of guys that were really happy to see him in there today.”
“It feels like I’ve just got called up again,” Garrett said once he was back in Nationals Park, as quoted by MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato.
“The energy’s high. Seeing everybody’s face, being back at a big league stadium, there’s no feeling like it. It feels great.”
Before last night’s game, Martinez talked about the decision to get Garrett in there for the first time since he came back.
“It’s a left-handed pitcher,” Martinez said of starting the right-handed slugger.
“I wanted to just kind of get him out there and I felt like he deserves an opportunity to get back out there. Hey, he did really good things for us last year until he got hurt, he worked his way back and I wanted to get him some at-bats today.”
Garrett’s first at-bat back came in the home-half of the third, up 1-0 with one on and two out, and he started up 2-0, fouled one off, took a pitch for a strike, spit on a curve way outside, and then hit low curveball 431 ft. to left-center off Ranger Suárez, putting the Nationals up 3-0 on the Phillies in what ended up a 9-1 win.
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOKS pic.twitter.com/UPrxkN6ZAA
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 27, 2024
After he grounded into a force in his second trip to the plate, Garrett hit an RBI single in the fourth, 7-0, before he doubled to lead off the seventh, leaving him a triple short of the cycle.
He got a shot at it in the eighth, but walked with two down. His manager was pumped about the three-hit game.
“Obviously, a lot of emotions were flying high, man,” Martinez said. “I’m so happy for him.
“Like I said earlier, he worked really hard to get back. For him to go up there and do what he did today was amazing. It really was. This is a testament about who he is and how he is. He loves the game. He loves the game, he loves hitting, wants to win.
“Today was an unbelievable performance. Like I said, he worked really hard to get back up here, got a chance to DH, get some at-bats, and did really well.”
“I don’t even know the word to describe it,” Garrett said after the game, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, of his own reaction to the home run. “Rounding the bases, I blacked out.”
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Seeing Garrett run out the double was another big step and moment on the way back.
“I kept watching him, and he ran good, he really did,” Martinez said. “ To see him get into second base, slide, and have a double there, it was awesome. Like I said, I can’t say enough about the person himself. He’s just a tremendous guy and teammates love him. He’s just that guy.”
Ok, he’s that guy. Martinez keeps saying it.
So what does “that guy” do for a team?
“He’s always smiling. He’s always happy. He’s always in-tune with what’s going on, but he’s a competitor, and he’s always pulling for his teammates. He’s just that guy. He had a really good year last year till he got hurt. The fact that he came back to Spring Training wanting to play again, had some setbacks, but played all year, stuck with it, and to come back up here and do what he did today was absolutely amazing.”