If Adam Eaton is being completely honest, as he was during a radio interview Monday, the Nationals outfielder would have more fun hitting lower in the order. After Eaton went 8 for 13 with two doubles, two home runs and seven runs scored in the leadoff spot during Washington’s season-opening sweep of the Reds, Nationals Manager Dave Martinez doesn’t figure to tinker with the spark plug’s place in the lineup anytime soon.
“Leadoff is not a great or fun position to hit in,” Eaton told 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on Monday. “There’s not a lot of options. It’s really a straightforward position. It’s see pitches, grind at-bats out, you’re hitting a lot of time with runners on second and third — one’s a pitcher and one’s a catcher. It’s a tough place to hit, but I’ve done it basically my whole life, really, so it’s something I’ve grown to really enjoy.”
Eaton has occupied the leadoff spot in all but 63 of his 530 career starts, so it’s a good thing he’s come to embrace his predictable role.
“It may not be pretty, it may not be perfect, but you know I’m going to grind things out, see as many pitches as I can possible, and put good at-bats together,” said Eaton, who won National League player of the week honors for his torrid start. “But those guys behind me make it easy, they really do. [Opposing pitchers aren’t] worried about me, I’ll tell you that right now. They are not worried about me. They’re like, ‘Let’s get this fly out of here so that we can get to the real guys who are going to do damage.’ The guys behind me allow me to get some more pitches to hit.”
Eaton, who has voiced his opinion about the lack of fun that comes with hitting first before, explained that a two- and three-hole hitters typically have more varied responsibilities during the course of a game.
“A guy gets on base and he has speed, you can hit and run, you can bunt and run, you can hit behind him, into the hole, you can do a number of different things,” said Eaton, who has batted four times with runners on base in 13 plate appearance this season. “He steals second, somehow you’re going to get him to third base. You can bunt there, you can hit behind him, you can drive him in, you can really do whatever the heck you want. In the three-hole, usually you’re going to have some type of racehorses on, guys that can run, that can score from first, score from second, sac fly. . . . There’s definitely different feels to every place that you hit.”
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Wherever he hits in the lineup, Martinez hopes to keep Eaton fresh after he missed all but the first month of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The outfielder was on the bench for Monday’s game in Atlanta after starting on three consecutive days in Cincinnati, something he didn’t do during spring training.
“The staff we have in place here in D.C., all the credit goes to those guys getting me back on the field and getting me healthy enough to play, and play three days in a row right off the bat,” Eaton said. “. . . I’m going to be doing therapy all year. I just have to really have the understanding that I’m going to be in pain at least two hours a day, and that’s just how it is. It is what it is, and in order to get back, that’s what I got to do.”
Eaton, who joked with reporters that he jogs like an 85-year-old man to his position every inning in an effort to conserve his body, already survived his first major injury scare of the season. During the final week of spring training, he collided with a Nationals ballboy while chasing a foul ball and was nearly impaled by the legs of the ballboy’s stool.
“I think his initial reaction was thank the Lord it wasn’t Bryce Harper or somebody pretty large,” Eaton told MLB Network on Monday when asked about the close call, while rocking a Capitals cap. “It was a 5-8, 180 [-pound], small man coming at him. When the ball went up in the air, I knew it was going to kind of come back, just with the wind there in West Palm Beach. Toward the tail end, I was waiting for him to call me off, but I never heard him say anything. We had a little run in. The first thing I said to him was, ‘Are you all right?’ He said, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t know where to go.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s all right, at least you didn’t stab me with that chair.’ We both came out unscathed. He’s good and I’m good. It made for a good picture anyways.”
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