Red Wings’ Casey showing Nationals that hitting really is his thing

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

Donovan Casey had the bat and the arm to excite major league baseball scouts while playing at Boston College.

In the batter’s box, he hit for average and showed potential to add power to his game. As a reliever on the mound, he could hit the mid-90s with his fastball and loved the pressure of earning the save.

But once Casey was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 20^th round in 2017, the only throwing he was going to do was from the outfield. He had no delusions of being a Shohei Ohtani.

“I’m enjoying hitting more than I enjoyed pitching,” Casey said Tuesday night, after he went 3-for-5 with two RBI and his first home run as a Red Wing in Rochester’s 9-7 loss to the Worcester Red Sox at Frontier Field.

Casey, 25, came to the Washington Nationals organization as part of the July 30 trade that sent Trea Turner and Max Scherzer to the Dodgers. He joined Double-A Harrisburg at first, then was promoted to the Wings on Aug. 17.

So far, Wings manager Matthew LeCroy likes what he has seen. In 13 games, he is hitting .326 with a .914 OPS. That includes six doubles, one of which came Tuesday night.

“He plays the game the right way, he plays hard and he’s all about winning ball games and doing what he can to help us win,” LeCroy said.

“He’s one of those guys that’s going to have to grind every day to get that opportunity. I talked to the big league skipper (Dave Martinez) yesterday and told him I was real excited about what I was seeing from Casey.”

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Casey has no problem with having to grind and show the Nationals what he can do. That’s one reason he didn’t foresee pitching as his future.

“I like to play every day,” Casey said. “I find baseball more fun when I’m playing every day. I enjoy the daily grind of going out there, always making adjustments and continuing to get better. That’s what I find fun about baseball, the grind of it.”

Some of those adjustments came on Tuesday afternoon in the batting cage. He worked with hitting coach Brian Daubach to alter his swing just a little.

“He’s got a lot of swing and miss in there at times, but I think him and Daubach, they’re doing a good job of trying to shorten him up a bit,” LeCroy said.

Said Casey: “He kind of helped me out, more of just being relaxed, just being on time and in the position ready to fire. It felt good today, you just have to go out and trust it, that’s the hardest part. It feels good when you hit the first ball hard. That was my goal, just to hit a line drive back up the middle. It felt good to come out swinging and hit a couple balls hard.”

Casey homered in the second, doubled in the third and singled home the final run in a five-run seventh as the Wings opened a 7-3 lead.

But the bullpen couldn’t hold it. Nick Wells allowed three runs in his second inning of work, all after two were out in the seventh. Ronald Pena then pitched the eighth and couldn’t find the strike zone. He walked his first two batters and gave up three runs.

“He’d been good, he’s pitched with some confidence, but tonight he just couldn’t find it,” LeCroy said. “These guys will get opportunities in these situations to show people what they can do, they just need to take advantage of it.”