Abrams has three-hit night after pregame chat with manager

NEW YORK – CJ Abrams is at a crossroads in his third full season with the Nationals. After playing like one of the top shortstops in the game over the season’s first two months, he entered Tuesday’s series opener against the Mets in a slump: Over his previous 17 games, he only hit .143 with a .430 OPS and three extra-base hits.

So the question is: Does he let the slump derail his campaign, or does he re-discover his earlier success to make a run at his second straight All-Star selection, this one in his hometown of Atlanta?

Hopefully, last night’s performance was an indication that he’ll trend toward the latter.

Abrams finished the night 3-for-4 after reaching base in each of his first four plate appearances via two doubles, his ninth home run of the season and a hit-by-pitch. It was the second game in his career he had produced three or more extra-base hits, with the other being when he went 3-for-5 with a double and two home runs in Baltimore on May 18.

That was also the last game he had homered in and the beginning of his tough 17-game stretch.

But instead of letting him try to figure it out on the fly, the Nationals gave Abrams a little pause. He didn’t start Sunday’s finale against the Rangers (though he did have a late pinch-hit appearance) and he had Monday’s off-day to sort of reset.

And after a pregame conversation with manager Davey Martinez, he produced a big night.

“Just seeing pitches,” Abrams said after last night’s game. “I talked to Davey before the game. We had a conversation about getting a good pitch to hit, and I did that tonight.”

“Awesome. That's who he is. That's what he can do,” Martinez said. “He did a much better job of not chasing today, staying in the middle field. Big home run to left field. But that's who he is. We gotta keep him there now. That's the big thing: Keep him in the middle of the field. When he does that, he really hits the ball hard.”

The simple message from that conversation was no different than it has been during the slump: Stop chasing pitches outside of the strike zone.

“Getting pitches in the heart of the plate to hit, especially being the leadoff hitter,” Abrams said. “I want to get on base, so I gotta take my walks and don't miss the pitch that I want to hit.”

Not chasing will be key for Abrams to continue this success. When he chases out of the strike zone, that’s when his production starts to decrease. Last night, he did a good job of staying in the zone, like when he stayed off some close fastballs to get to a 3-1 count before his RBI double in the second.

“You don't want weak contact,” Abrams said. “Those are the pitchers' pitches. I've been swinging at those lately, so I don't want to do that. And today shows what I can do.”

“Absolutely,” Martinez agreed. “When he gets the ball in the strike zone, he's going to hit it hard. He got ready a little bit earlier today. He saw the ball really well.”

Abrams was a part of all the Nats’ scoring last night somehow. He scored the first run on Nathaniel Lowe’s two-run homer, and he drove in the last two with his RBI double and solo shot, showing what he can do for this team at the top of the lineup.

“For sure, yeah. You see what he can do,” Robert Hassell III said. “He kept us in that game from the jump. Great day from him."

“It was great to see, especially when you have a couple weeks tough stretch,” MacKenzie Gore said. “So yeah, that was great to see him get four hits tonight. That was huge.”

Now the key for him to keep it going is to continue to not chase. And maybe a few more pregame chats with his manager.

“That's a big thing,” Abrams said. “Chase rates are going up. You got to put that back down. Being able to get on base for the team is big, so I'm gonna keep doing that.”