Nearly one year ago, the Nationals turned a game against Jake Arrieta into a track meet.
At the time, Arrieta was the ace of the Chicago Cubs, Dave Martinez was his bench coach, and Miguel Montero was the hapless catcher who couldn't overcome his delightfully slow delivery to the plate.
Fast-forward a year and Martinez is the coach of the Nats, Arrieta is the ace of the Phillies, and Montero is a free agent after spending the Spring with the Nats (there is no happy ending for him).
Knowing what happened then, Martinez employed a similar strategy against his previous pitcher, giving Nats baserunners the green light against Arrieta. But it didn't work as well this time around.
In the second inning, two Nats were gunned down by catcher Jorge Alfaro while trying to steal second base. The irony is that the Nats may have done more damage in the inning if they had been more selective, instead of running themselves into outs.
After that, the Nationals stopped testing Alfaro and he obliged by not throwing them out. The Nats finished the day with zero stolen bases.