Ruiz's three-hit night evidence of hard work behind the scenes

MIAMI -- Keibert Ruiz has the potential to be a franchise backstop. Full stop. After all, there’s a reason the Nationals signed the then-24-year-old catcher to an eight-year deal in March 2023.

Between Ruiz’s growth defensively and Washington’s belief in his offensive power potential, there’s a lot of promise.

Ruiz showcased that power on Tuesday night, reaching base in three straight at-bats and finishing a triple shy of the cycle for the third time this season as the Nationals snagged their eighth win vs. the Marlins this season, 6-2, at loanDepot park.

“He laid off some pitches and got the ball up a little bit and just smoked some balls,” manager Dave Martinez said. “So it was good to see him have a good day today, really was. He's been working hard.”

It’s been a slower season for Ruiz, who set career highs in 2023 but has had trouble getting going consistently at the plate this year. Ruiz entered the series opener in Miami hitting .039 (1-for-26) in his past seven games and .216 on the season.

The Nationals aren’t in too much of a hurry for Ruiz to come into his power. One of the keys will be Ruiz lowering his chase rate, which is a career-high 38.4 percent -- almost 10 percentage points above the 28.5 percent league average. He’s already putting in the work in the batting cages, going through drills focused on plate discipline.

That work paid off vs. the Marlins. Ruiz’s double to lead off the third inning came on a first-pitch changeup toward the top of the zone. He smoked it a Statcast-projected 105.3 mph down the first-base line, just inside the bag, and came around to score on an RBI single from Jacob Young in the next at-bat.

In the fourth, Ruiz singled on a low-and-inside slider, the ball leaving his bat at 106.4 mph.

Then came Ruiz’s sixth-inning homer. His 13th long ball of the season, it left his bat at just 100 mph -- a far cry from either of his other base hits -- and soared into the visitors’ bullpen in right field.

“For me, with him, it's about just being consistent,” Martinez said. “He's got to learn what he did today and focus on doing that tomorrow. You know, today he laid off a lot of balls down, cut the ball up. He's really good at hitting the balls up. If he could continue to do that, you know, he could swing the bat.

“We all know he's got unbelievable bat-to-ball skills. I think he thinks he could hit every ball hard, you know, but he needs to understand the strike zone a little better.”

As Ruiz builds his consistency at the plate, he’s already found steadiness behind it. This season in particular, the Nationals have been impressed by the catcher’s development defensively, whether it be his game calling, his blocking or his framing.

The changes are evident in how Ruiz carries himself and in his focus on making sure his pitchers trust him. The time and energy Ruiz has put into developing relationships with his staff is paying off.

“It’s [one of those] things that a lot of fans of the game don’t really truly understand how important that is,” said starter Patrick Corbin, who struck out eight and allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings. “Having those conversations between innings and things like that definitely can help throughout games. It’s something he’s been taking a lot of pride in this season, to try to get really familiar with these guys.”

The numbers back up the qualitative aspects of Ruiz’s growth. He’s made just one error this season and turned a career-high eight double plays. He’s allowed just two passed balls, compared to eight last season -- in part because he started setting up on one knee instead of on two feet. The change also helped Ruiz snag more calls low in the zone. (He has zero catcher framing runs -- which can be considered league average, on par with All-Star catchers like the Royals’ Salvador Perez -- compared to -13 last season.)

And Ruiz isn’t carrying his offensive lows into his defense -- though there wasn’t much threat of that vs. the Marlins on Tuesday night. The only threat was of Ruiz demolishing Miami’s offerings.

“I really believe Keibert is a 20-, 25-home run guy,” Martinez said. “We've seen a little bit of it last year, but just putting the ball in play for him, I mean, hard -- you're gonna see that come out of him.”