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Even when asked about his own home run Wednesday afternoon, Brady House couldn’t help but pivot to teammate Nasim Nunez’s more impressive power display during the Nationals’ 10-5 win over the Marlins.
“It’s a good feeling to put the ball in play, especially whenever I have runners on,” the rookie third baseman said. “And I feel like everyone did that today, especially Nas. Crazy work from Nasim today.”
OK, so House’s fourth-inning homer didn’t steal the show the way Nunez’s pair of homers (the first two of his major league career) did at Nationals Park. But it was plenty significant in its own right, because it had been a long time since the 22-year-old connected on a ball like that.
House made his big league debut June 16. He finally hit his first home run July 12 in Milwaukee, then hit another in that game just for good measure. It seemed like he had turned a corner and was poised to go on a sustained run that would showcase the power he had always owned at every prior level of the sport.
Except it didn’t happen that way. House went more than a month and a half before homering again, a stretch of 116 plate appearances that didn’t even include many close calls. Over that 33-game stretch prior to Wednesday, he hit a paltry .214 and slugged a paltry .259, drawing only one walk while striking out 39 times.
What happened to that .519 slugging percentage House displayed in 65 games at Triple-A Rochester to earn his first promotion to the majors?
“It’s an adjustment,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “Triple-A is Triple-A. The big leagues is just a different animal. It’s different. You’ve got the best pitchers, you’ve got the best relievers, and teams make an adjustment on you. You’ve just got to learn how to make that adjustment.
“He’s been working really hard on making adjustments and just being himself. He’s only 22, and you can see the future that he has ahead.”
It’s not the easiest thing to make adjustments to big league pitching when you’re not facing big league pitching on an everyday basis. House’s struggles, combined with a hot streak by veteran Paul DeJong that has since turned cold, prompted Cairo to keep the rookie on the bench more than anyone expected for one of the organization’s top prospects. Wednesday marked only House’s fifth start in the Nationals’ last nine games.
There are 23 games remaining on the schedule, and it remains to be seen how many of them House starts. His objective when he does get the opportunity to play has little to do with the kind of power he showed Wednesday.
“I think just staying with the same approach, trying to get the runners over whenever they’re on base the best way I can, especially when there’s less than two outs,” he said. “And then kind of let the rest do its thing.”
It’s notable that House’s stated priority involves more contact and a more team-oriented offensive approach. His biggest flaw to date has been a lack of plate discipline.
He’s drawn only five walks compared to 61 strikeouts. He has chased more than 39 percent of pitches out of the strike zone (11 points higher than the major league average) while making contact on only 49 percent of those swings (12 points lower than the MLB average).
“I just want to make sure that he barrels balls and swings in the strike zone and doesn’t chase,” Cairo said. “You do that, you’re going to have a chance to have a long career in the big leagues. He’s only 22. He’s in the big leagues trying to make some adjustments. Learning how to make adjustments in the big leagues is hard, and he’s doing it.”
As for the long power drought that finally came to an end Wednesday, House insists it wasn’t weighing on his mind.
“No, I don’t think a lot of people think about homers and power,” he said. “Homers are accidents. Just try to hit the ball hard, and if it ends up going out, then that’s a bonus.”
