After taking a brief break from spring training, we take a look at how Washington Nationals catcher Harry Ford fared during the World Baseball Classic
The Washington Nationals are one week away from the spring breakout game and less than two week away from Opening Day against the Chicago Cubs with questions for first year manager Blake Butera to answer with his eventually finalized 40-man rotation.
The first question that was addressed was who the ace in the Nationals' rotation with news of Cade Cavalli taking the mound for Opening Day against the Chicago Cubs being made official this week, leading to praise from Butera. While how ill become the closer is another question for Butera and his staff to answer, so is the starting catching spot with Keibert Ruiz in a competition for the first time as a National following the arrival of Harry Ford in the trade with Seattle back in December.
While Ford has posted six strikeouts to two hits in ten at bats in spring training, Ford also served as co-captain of Great Britain alongside New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm where he delivered for the Brits.
In game one against the Milwaukee Brewers, Ford posted three hits and a pair of RBIs across his five at bats, including a two-run home run in the top of the fifth inning for what proved to be Great Britain's lone home run of the game. He followed it up with one hit and one RBI to go with one strikeout across his three at bats against the San Diego Padres the next day, ending in a 2-2 tie. But Ford would lead the way to get Great Britain in the win column against Mexico on March 5, going 2-for-2 including a solo home run en route to an 8-2 win. His first blemish of the World Baseball Classic came against the United States when Ford finished 0-for-3 before going 0-for-5 against Italy the following day, totaling three strikeouts across the pair of appearances, but he would bounce back with a respectable outing after notching another RBI and a pair of strikeouts in four strikeouts against Brazil, ending his first World Base Classic appearance with an RBI in an 8-1 win.
The Nationals' offensive struggles at the position have been well documented with Ford's biggest question his hitting, marking his latest WBC appearance as an encouraging sign for the man viewed to be the future behind the backstop. Ford will get another chance to suit up in a slightly different setting as he's one of 27 Nationals set to participate in the Spring Breakout Game next week, but whether he's shown enough to become the Opening Day starter later this month still remains a question mark.