Productive night could propel Tena into more playing time at third

The afternoon began with Davey Martinez suggesting Jose Tena was going to start getting more playing time, perhaps establishing a righty-lefty platoon at third base with veteran Amed Rosario.

If Tena keeps playing like he did Tuesday evening, he won’t have any trouble convincing his manager to pencil him into the lineup with more regularity.

On a night in which the Nationals lineup totaled 10 extra-base hits en route to a 7-0 blanking of the Orioles, Tena was a surprisingly significant contributor. He went 3-for-4 with a triple and two doubles, turning in far more production than he had in any of his previous seven games played this season.

“Obviously, I hadn’t played in a couple days. But I felt comfortable and felt relaxed,” he said, via interpreter Kenny Diaz. “I felt thankful that I had the game I had today.”

With Paul DeJong on the 10-day injured list after fracturing his nose when he was struck by a fastball last week in Pittsburgh, and with top prospect Brady House still waiting in the wings at Triple-A Rochester, the Nationals find themselves with no clear daily answer at third base. Rosario got the first opportunity during the final stages of last week’s road trip but saw his production cool off. Trey Lipscomb got a start Sunday in Colorado but struggled to hit the ball in the air.

So the spinning wheel stopped on Tena on Tuesday, and the 24-year-old made the most of it.

Batting seventh, Tena led off the bottom of the second with a ball into the left-field corner, turning an easy double into a close triple. That aggressive baserunning paid off shortly after when Tena bolted for the plate and scored on Dean Kremer’s wild pitch.

He came up again in the fourth and on the seventh pitch of the at-bat belted a double to the gap in right-center. And in his final at-bat of the night in the bottom of the eighth, he went the other way again for another double down the left field line.

That’s three hits in four at-bats, matching his output from his previous 17 at-bats.

“The key for him is staying on the fastball, not pulling off, seeing the ball,” Martinez said. “He’s another guy who hits the ball the other way really well. When he does that, he’s on time and he pulled the ball to right-center field. But he’s got to understand that’s who he is. He’s a guy who has to stay on the ball and hit the ball to the middle of the field.”

It appears the plan for now at third base will involve Tena starting against right-handers and Rosario against lefties. But Tena does need to show off more than his offensive skills if he wants to continue to get playing opportunities.

“For me, it’s all about defense,” Martinez said. “He’s got to play good defense for us. We’ve got good starting pitching. We’ve got to catch the ball. If he can do that, as he showed today, he’ll get a chance to play. I really believe he can hit. It’s his defense. We lost a really good defender in Paul DeJong. So he’s got to step it up now. He’s got to go play defense.”

Tena had never played third base with any regularity when the Nationals acquired him from the Guardians last summer as part of the Lane Thomas trade. With their middle infield already locked up by CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr., there was no place to put Tena besides the hot corner, and he never looked comfortable there.

He’s made some strides since then, though, putting all of his offseason focus on learning the position and getting more comfortable there. It’s still a work in progress, but Tena did make a nifty catch of a foul popup right up against the netting Tuesday night.

“Obviously, I didn’t play much third base coming in here to the Nationals,” he said. “It’s been important to continue working with the coaches, both (Miguel Cairo) and (Ricky Gutierrez) have been great in working with me and getting comfortable over there. And I can say I feel a lot more comfortable being at third base.”