Washington’s next game is Saturday night, but well before first pitch, Martinez will have spoken at length with Robles, 23, about electing to steal down one run in the top of the eighth after his bunt single advanced Yadiel Hernandez to third with none out. Due up next were Trea Turner and Juan Soto, leaving tantalizing possibilities for a comeback.
But Dodgers catcher Will Smith threw out Robles, with second baseman Gavin Lux applying the tag. Turner then struck out, Soto drew an intentional walk from reliever Blake Treinen, and Ryan Zimmerman grounded into a force out. Inning and threat over on the way to Washington’s third straight defeat.
“He should just stay put, but once again for me that’s just a young baseball player trying to be overly aggressive,” Martinez said after the game. “He’s got to be smarter than that, and that’s something we’ve got to teach him along the way, especially when he’s leading off, and he’s got all those hitters behind him.”
Martinez stressed the conversation with Robles would be an open and honest exchange. This wasn’t going to be a lecture. Martinez instead intended to probe the youthful Dominican about his reasoning for the steal attempt, then offer why he should have reconsidered.
The scouting report, for instance, indicated Treinen is especially quick to the plate. Or had Turner found a way to get on base, one mighty swing from Soto could transform the entire complexion of the game. Failing that, Zimmerman, the Nationals elder statesman batting .385 to start his 16th season, might get a crack with the bases loaded.
“I will sit with him and explain the situation, and I want to get his thoughts,” Martinez said. “I want to know what he was thinking first before I give him mine, and then we’ll talk about it, and hopefully he understands. We want him to be aggressive, but we want him to be aggressive smart.”
Assisting Robles in finding that balance is the immediate task for Martinez. Robles has been prone to risk-taking because of supreme confidence in his abilities, even if that means slamming into a wall trying to make a catch, absorbing a pitch to the body to get on base or creating anxiety for Martinez in a game that doesn’t count.
The latter circumstance unfolded last month when Robles slipped on his plant foot while charging a hit in the fifth inning of a Grapefruit League game, and threw home with such velocity that catcher Yan Gomes had to alter his balance when receiving the ball. The base runner Robles was hunting, it turned out, had stopped at third.
Robles, meanwhile, wound up kneeling in the outfield with his hand on his lower back. He would leave the game with head trainer Paul Lessard, but later returned with what was determined to be back tightness. Robles had avoided serious injury, but the sequence again underscored a daring inclination that at times borders on recklessness.
“I didn’t think about looking at who’s coming up in the lineup, which is our strong part of our lineup, and giving them the best opportunity to produce,” Robles said Friday in Spanish through an interpreter. “That’s part of me being an aggressive player and having to learn and look at that stuff, but that was completely my fault with not looking over and seeing who was coming up behind me.”
Still, Robles’s ascension to the leadoff spot signals a bump in Martinez’s confidence despite a statistical regression in the pandemic-altered 2020 season from 2019. Robles batted .255 with 17 home runs and 65 RBIs two seasons ago, while adding 33 doubles and 28 stolen bases. He finished sixth in voting for NL rookie of the year.
Over 52 games in 2020, Robles hit .220 with three homers and 15 RBI. His on-base percentage, a statistic of the utmost consequence for a leadoff hitter, dipped to .293. Robles’s defense suffered as well.
This season, albeit through the lens of a severely limited sample size, Robles is hitting .273 with a .500 OBP. His on-base plus slugging checks in at .773, on pace with his rookie season. His two-strike adjustments are improving, according to Martinez, as is his overall comfort with the strike zone.
“Basically pitch selection and being patient at the plate,” Robles said. “That’s helped me quite a bit. I’ve been working a lot with the hitting coaches in the cage and at BP, and I’ve carried that onto the game, and it’s helped me a lot and be more relaxed and patient at the plate.”
