Matt Williams Booed at Press Conference Amid Nats’ Downward Spiral

As always, both managers met with the media following the game.

Washington Nationals fans could be carrying lit torches and pitchforks to the ballpark tonight hoping to run manager Matt Williams out of town.

After a loss in which Kelly Johnson, acquired by the Mets in a pre-deadline deal, hit a pinch hit homer to tie the series finale in the eighth and Yoenis Cespedes, acquired just before the deadline passed, hit the go-ahead blast, Williams was asked if the Nationals’ decision to stand pat at the deadline, at least in terms of adding offense since they did acquire Jonathan Papelbon, had hurt the Nationals’ chances in the division?

Rizzo wasn’t in such a rush to defend Williams’ decision during his weekly radio appearance the following afternoon, when asked if he was okay with Williams calling for a bunt.

“They’re avid supporters of all of us, and we’ll leave it at that”, Williams said Wednesday on 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C.

Williams told reporters afterward that he had Rendon bunt against New York closer Jeurys Familia because he was anxious about the double play, a decision ripped to shreds by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, who wrote, “In other words, Williams gave up an out from one of his best hitters who never bunts because he was anxious about something that happens 12% of the time – that’s how often Familia actually gets a double play when one is in order (about the same as the Major League Baseball average of 11%)”.

“I’m on the second floor in the GM box, so it’s something that we discuss the strategies before and we discuss after each and every game”, he said.

Williams is certainly not the best strategic manager in the game, far from it, but I find it very hard to put Tuesday night’s loss on his shoulders.

Rouhier asked Rizzo whether those strategy talks touch on specific situations which have occurred in Nationals games. “Sometimes when you come back from a rehab it takes a little while to get going, but they’ve all done it. That’s the way I look at it anyway”. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. We debate. We argue. (Seriously, if you looked at Baseball Twitter at this point in time, you’d have thought Matt Williams was standing on the mound and tossing grenades into his own dugout.) Rendon, of course, put down a crappy bunt and Werth was forced out at second.

With pitcher Jordan Zimmermann cruising along, having allowed one run and three hits with six strikeouts and a walk, Williams made a pitching change with two outs in the top of the sixth. “And that was really the crux of the conversation last night, was about that”. The win extended their lead over the Nats to six games in the NL East.