The Colorado Rockies were supposed to be the antidote to the Nationals' struggles when the woebegone collection of ballplayers arrived in Washington for a four-game series on Monday with just 14 wins through their first 71 games.
Instead, the visitors took advantage of the weakest link of the Nats' roster – the bullpen – to grab a pair of victories to extend Washington's losing streak to a season-long 10 games, sinking the club to a season-worst 13 games below .500.
Some frustration about the losing boiled over when manager Davey Martinez made comments over the weekend that appeared to throw his players under the bus. Rizzo, in defending his manager, called him as "player-friendly" as a manager gets. However, the GM said the manager "got caught in a frustrating moment and kinda lashed out."
"I think it was out of frustration," Rizzo told The Junkies. "Here's my take on the situation: There's onus on the players, there's onus on the coaches, there's onus on the manager, and there's a great onus on the general manager to do a better job. We all gotta look in the mirror, to lose 10 games in a row... It's hard to lose 10 games in a row. I've never lost 10 games in a row, it's my 43rd year in professional baseball, never lost 10 in a row. It's tough. When tough times come, you have to deal with it."
The GM added later that once they get past this skid and "right the ship," the club will "continue progressing towards winning a championship whenever that is. And I think that's where my feelings are right now."
After dropping a seventh straight game on Saturday, Martinez said the poor play was "never on coaching."
"Coaches work their asses off every single day. We’re not gonna finger-point here and say it is coaches. It’s never on the coaches," Martinez said on Saturday. "They work hard. The message is clear, all the work is done prior. Sometimes, they gotta go out there and they got to play the game. It has always been about the players. Always. I played this game a long time. Never once have I blamed a coach for anything. We worked our asses off to get better. They gave us information and we used it.
“These guys understand what the game is. I never had such a good group of coaches who work as hard as they do. They go over everything, sit with the players every day. These coaches, they work their asses off. And I know every coaching staff is like that. Sometimes, the players know, sometimes you have to put the onus on the players. They have got to go out there and play the game the right way.
"We can’t hit for them, we can’t catch the ball for them, we can’t pitch for them, we can’t throw strikes for them. They gotta do that.”
Rizzo told The Junkies he spoke with Martinez after the press conference and said that if the manager could have done it again, he would have done things differently and just gotten his point across of supporting the coaching staff in a "smoother, better way that [doesn't] ruffle the feathers of the fanbase."
"I do think that [Martinez's comments] took a life of its own, moreso with the fanbase and the media than it did in the clubhouse, I know that for a fact," the GM told 106.7 The Fan, waiving away reports citing what he called "anonymous rumor" and reported that he did not see "any unrest or any unhappiness."
"I know Davey talked to all the players after those comments were made. I think that's behind us, believe me, that's the least of our worries as far as this 10-game how we're playing streak," Rizzo said.
The GM added that to him, Martinez is the same manager in the clubhouse when there is media around and when there are just players and is the same guy over the weekend as he was in October 2019 when the Nationals won the World Series: "Same guy."
When asked directly about the fanbase "wanting a scalp" for the poor play, Rizzo defended Martinez, pointing out that "you guys had Davey out the door in '19, too. Your station, every other station wanted him fired, the coaches fired, the GM fired, the owners to sell the team. It's the same thing. And it's built on frustration, and I get it."
"Fans are fans, they root for their team, they want to be proud of their team, they want the team to perform well because it's there team, believe me we all feel that," he told The Junkies. "But I'm looking at the big picture of an entirety of a season, and we're June 18, and we've got three-and-a-half months left and 10 days ago we were 30-32 and our whole discussion and narrative was different.
"And hopefully, 10 days from now, I'm back here on a Wednesday and we're talking about 'wow we really did turn things around.'"
Of course, three other struggling teams have already made a change at manager in the Pirates, Rockies, and Orioles. Rizzo saw a common thread with those franchises: "Pittsburgh hasn't won a World Series since 'We are a family' [in 1979], Colorado has never won a World Series, and Baltimore [Joe Altobelli] was the last guy who won a World Series with Baltimore."
The GM said Martienz is "proven" and can handle a veteran-laden roster as well as the young Nationals roster as currently assembled. "I have fired managers in midseason, I have fired managers after the season, I have fired coaches in midseason, I have fired coaches after the season. We are all being evaluated, we've all gotta look ourselves in the mirror," he said. "We are at a point right now where we are moving forward with these young kids. I think Davey still has the pulse of the clubhouse, he's a great clubhouse presence, he's a calming clubhouse presence."
Against that backdrop, Rizzo pointed to the young core of the team that is "learning their craft at the big league level" with 17 players who are homegrown – drafted or acquired as minor league prospects and developed.
"We're developing on the fly," he said. "I think you see there's been some successes and obviously [areas] that need focus. Our baserunning is still poor, our infield defense has to improve. I think [Brady] House joining our roster will improve our infield defense because he's a really good defensive third baseman, so I think that will help. And these are things that we have to concentrate on, to not only get out of this hole of the 10-game losing streak, but to move forward, this is how we have to win games."
Rizzo added: "We're in a tough time right now, there's no question about it... But tough times don't last, tough people last. And what I said in 2019 still holds today: We lose as a team, we win as a team, we can bicker as a team between ourselves. It's like I can scream at my brother, but nobody from the outside world can. We gotta keep this thing together and moving forward and keep these young players with an optimistic and vivacious [attitude] coming to the ballpark every day and winning games."
Listen to the full conversation with Rizzo – including how he sees the rebuild going – on the audio player above!