Nationals Complete First Road Trip in ‘Prison League’

Trekking out of Manhattan to Citi Field is a chore in non-train transportation. The 7 line on the subway or the Long Island Rail Road can pull downtowners out to Queens with little trouble. Driving there can prove difficult.

It's worse in the rain. The Nationals went through the wetness problems when severely late for a day game in 2019 during their late-May, four-game debacle against the Mets. They dealt with it again during this week's four-game series. Accidents, flash floods, manic driving are stifling for a single commuter. They are more difficult for a team now using twice as many buses as usual to go to and from the hotel.

The extra transportation was among the changes during the Nationals' first real road trip of the season. Four days in New York, a series split with the Mets, and strict monotony defined the visit. Coronavirus outbreaks first within the Miami Marlins organization, then festering through the St. Louis Cardinals, caught the attention of the entire league. The Nationals were able to work at home during those speed bumps to the season. They had not gone through the new routine on the road yet. When they did, they learned it was boring, which means it was safe.

"It's way different when you're on the road and you're at the hotel -- it feels like prison now," Max Scherzer said with a laugh before chuckling throughout his comments. "Feels like the Prison League. That's the only way to describe it. You're just sitting in your hotel room the entire time. Hey, it is what it is. Every day's a challenge. Every day there's something new about this. Every challenge you've got to be able to meet, just keep a smile on your face and keep moving on."

Everyone went through the same process before Thursday's 8-2 loss in the series finale dropped the Nationals to 6-9. Hotel-bus-stadium reverse. No nightlife, no morning meals out, no fun.

But, this is what the Nationals, and others, realized they have to do to make the calendar click forward this season. The necessary processes were apparent before the city-to-city season began. That didn't mean they would be executed properly. And, even if they were, there was no guarantee one bad decision would not derail the entire process.

So, they are relegated to the hotel if they want to play. Major League Baseball put security staffers in hotel lobbies to watch the coming and going of players across the league. Davey Martnez joked he was going to place Mike Rizzo in the lobby as a preventative measure for the first trip. The plan was for everyone to stay upstairs until their bus -- with its assigned seat -- was ready. Not exactly the usual New York City limelight.

"Spend a lot of time looking out the window in my room," Martinez said of how he passed the time. "Thank goodness it's Shark Week. I've been watching Shark Week all morning. But, other than that, we don't do much. Sit in the room. Do some work. Watch videos. Watch TV. Like I said, I sit on the window sill and look outside."

In addition to no partying, no restaurants and no team outings, families are out, too. Martinez already knows he won't see his children when the team travels to Tampa in a month. Juan Soto went through family avoidance during the organization's first trip. Typically, he would stay with family in New York. Sleep there. Eat with them. Go to the stadium when it is time, then return. That was not an option this week.

Though Soto, who has twice been in quarantine since baseball began again, said his days in New York weren't much different than the ones he spends in Washington. He believes his positive COVID-19 test was a false positive. He tried to do everything right prior. Now, he's taken the process to another level by stripping it down as much as possible.

"Just a little bit weird because I don't have my mom around," Soto said of New York. "It's the same [overall]. I've been doing the same in D.C. -- home, field, home, field. Don't even go out to get groceries or anything. I just stay in my house. That's how we got to go, try to keep myself in a bubble. Try to stay away from everybody, even the people I see outside of the field and try to get me to sign, I say, ‘I'm sorry, I can't.' I just try to stay away from everybody and try to follow the rules."

The Nationals boarded their train home Thursday appearing to have followed protocols. They have a pseudo-road trip starting Friday when they bus to-and-from Baltimore. Next week presents another step: air travel. They fly to Atlanta on Monday to open a three-game series against the Braves, where they will hope for what people usually don't want when heading out of town: to be isolated and bored.

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