MINNEAPOLIS — For the second time in this weekend series, the Washington Nationals needed a jolt of offense. And for the second time in this weekend series, Joey Meneses provided it.
“I played a good game yesterday. I feel like I felt more confident today,” Meneses said through an interpreter. “… I felt more and more like myself at the plate.”
In Friday’s 3-2 win, Meneses hit his first home run of the season to help Washington end a frigid offensive stretch that included back-to-back shutout losses to the Baltimore Orioles. He continued to keep the line moving Saturday.
Maybe it was unfair or unwise for the Nationals (7-13) to build their offense around Meneses, a 30-year-old who burst onto the scene as a rookie last year. Sure, he hit .324 with 13 homers and a .930 OPS. But it came over a 56-game stretch after the trade deadline; plenty of players have burned bright to start their major league careers, only to regress once opponents figure out their weaknesses.
Manager Dave Martinez planned for Meneses to be the everyday designated hitter, hoping for power to boost a lineup that dearly lacks it. But following a quiet spring training that featured a star turn at the World Baseball Classic, Meneses found himself out in front of pitches to open the season. That prevented him from driving the ball as he did a year ago. Recently, though, he has done a better job of keeping his weight back and driving the ball to the opposite field.
“It’s not easy being on the bench and then having to come out and take an at-bat,” he said of the DH role. “… It’s something to get used to, and it’s been an adjustment.”
The Nationals still rank last in the National League in home runs, and Meneses’s struggles haven’t helped there. But he entered the week feeling more confident at the plate, and that is translating on the field.
Meneses, who Saturday played at first base for the third time this season, didn’t crush the ball on his run-scoring hits. With runners on second and third in the first inning, he hit a bouncer 67.7 mph to third baseman Jose Miranda for an infield single that brought home Washington’s first run. (The Nationals added another on a wild pitch.) In the second, Meneses boosted that mark to 78.1 mph by dumping an RBI single to center that made it 3-0. (Luis García’s single later in the inning made it 4-0.)
Meneses’s third single, a hard-hit ball to the right side that registered 101.8 mph in the fourth, followed a Jeimer Candelario sacrifice fly that had given the Nationals a 5-1 lead. Meneses doubled down the left field line (97.7 mph) in the eighth but struck out in his other two at-bats.
The Nationals got contributions from all over. CJ Abrams hit a three-run homer, his first with the Nationals, in the seventh inning to give Washington an 8-2 lead. After the Twins (11-10) scored twice in the bottom of the inning, Candelario and Victor Robles drove in a run apiece in the ninth.
Here’s what else to know about the Nationals’ win:
Kuhl struggles with command
Though Chad Kuhl allowed just one run, he turned in an extremely inefficient start. He lasted 3⅔ innings and threw just 49 of his 96 pitches for strikes.
Kuhl said the chilly, windy conditions didn’t let him get a good feel for some of his pitches. He issued four walks and found himself in deep counts in nearly every at-bat. He threw 23 pitches with just nine strikes in the first inning; despite issuing a pair of four-pitch walks, he escaped with back-to-back strikeouts on his slider — his best pitch Saturday.
His day ended in the fourth after he walked Michael A. Taylor. In his first three innings, he threw at least two balls in every plate appearance except for one — when Byron Buxton smoked a 1-1 sinker into the seats in left for a solo homer in the third that gave the Twins their first run.
Mason Thompson finished the fourth inning and handled the fifth and sixth for his second win.
Adams in the lineup
Keibert Ruiz got the day off, so Riley Adams started at catcher for the third time this season and the first time since April 8 in Colorado. He finished 1 for 3 with a bloop single in the fifth.
His most significant play came in the bottom of that inning, when he overthrew Meneses at first base on a dropped third strike to Joey Gallo. (Adams was charged with a passed ball and an error as Gallo moved to second.) Carlos Correa drove in Gallo during the next at-bat, but that merely trimmed the Nationals’ lead to three.