He has always been this way. He believes it’s in his genes. He grew up watching his father dominate pickup basketball runs with the same intensity. The son carried the fire to la plaquita, the cricket-like street game he “attacked” as a kid in the Dominican Republic. He carried it to youth baseball fields, where coaches worried he would run into the concrete wall in center and “kill himself” before he turned 16 and became eligible to sign with a Major League Baseball team.

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He carried it for years, through five seasons in the minor leagues, to Nationals Park, where amid this bleak season he has shined with power (he’s fourth on the team with eight home runs), speed (he’s fourth in the National League with nine steals) and durability (he has played in 54 of 56 games).

Yet the daring bunts, diving catches and dazzling speed can, for a moment, make you forget how often Robles puts himself at risk. Then a stark reminder hurtles toward his head. On Saturday against the Miami Marlins, Robles squared to bunt, extended himself over the plate and stared down a 96-mph sinker that never sank. He knifed out of the way, landing on his back as the ball grazed his chin. It was the 10th time he had been hit by a pitch this season.

That one scared him. He thought he might lose teeth. Still, it changed nothing.

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“I’ve always said a pitch that hits me is not going to change my aggressiveness and how I play the game,” he said afterward in Spanish through a team interpreter. “I leave everything in God’s hands, and what happens, happens.”

This tension in his game is not occasional. It’s regular — and integral to every part of his baseball makeup.

Head

Nationals players and coaches flinch when Robles makes mistakes, throwing to the wrong base or jogging into an out because, after a teammate walked, he thought third base was open. But they recognize this is part of the mental maturation process.

Manager Dave Martinez and other coaches see a younger player sharpening his mind through his commitment to situational study, his “daily diet” of throwing the bases pregame and his internalization of the outfield alignment chart. Despite the miscues, Martinez remembers strongest the flashes difficult to coach, such as when Robles comes to the plate and imagines himself as a defender, wondering what he wouldn’t want the hitter to do. He possesses an uncanny understanding for when and where to spring a push bunt.

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“He pretty much [bunts] on his own. He gets it,” Martinez said. “He’s asking questions every day, and he’s learning.”

Eyes

The aggression Robles unleashes on the bases and in the field translates to the batter’s box, where Robles swings often. It’s not that his eyes deceive him — he ranked 88th of 167 qualified MLB hitters for pitches chased outside the strike zone (29.6 percent) entering Friday, per FanGraphs — it’s that he is less discriminant about which strikes he will go after. He likes to get in the box and make something happen.

This approach follows what Martinez preaches, that his team needs to put the ball in play more and sacrifice runners over, yet it sometimes runs counter to his manager’s other philosophy, especially for young players, about taking walks. (Robles’s walk rate, 5.5 percent, ranks in the bottom 15th percentile of qualified hitters.)

“He’s just overly aggressive,” Martinez said. “He understands, hey, he’s up there to hit. We tell him that: ‘You may not want to look for walks, but there are times where they’re going to give you walks. Take your walks.’ But he’s aggressive.”

Arm

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In mid-May, during one pitching change, three generations of outfielders huddled in center. Seven years ago, veteran Gerardo Parra had mentored rookie Adam Eaton with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now Eaton was mentoring a rookie himself.

When Robles grows overeager and throws to the wrong base or misses the cutoff, which he has done several times this season, Eaton sees a reflection of the player he used to be. He knows the game comes fast with tens of thousands of fans in the seats. Robles can compensate for the slip-ups with power — scouts graded his arm a 70 on an 80 scale — but Eaton wants to help refine Robles.

“Most guys learn [the nuances] in the minor leagues,” Eaton said. “He's gifted enough that he's learning at the big leagues.”

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Usually, after a pitching change, Eaton will relay the number of outs and the speed of the batter and any runners. This time, though, the player he had learned to do that from, Parra, was there and said it first. Eaton looked at Robles, who started laughing.

Hips

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The Nationals want Robles to slow down, and it starts by focusing on one step at a time. Before every game, as a part of his fastidious routine, Robles works on the “first-step drill” designed to make players more conscious of their hips.

When a batter blasts a ball his way, third base coach and outfield coordinator Bob Henley wants Robles to take the correct first step, to pursue rather than recover. If the ball goes over his head, his hips should open about 180 degrees as Robles plants his right foot. Same rules apply on line drives. Robles has shown flashes, such as last Friday against the Marlins when he made a diving catch to start the ninth inning, along with some mistakes. On May 22, the New York Mets’ Juan Lagares doubled over his head to spark a six-run eighth inning because Robles took a circuitous route.

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“When you’re an aggressive-style player … you’re going to make mistakes,” Henley said. He brushed it off. “I’ve been really happy with him. … He has a base [skill set], and, through successes and through failures, at times, he continues to get better, learning from both.”

Feet

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Nothing in Robles’s game is as uncomplicated as his feet. He flies in his Nike cleats, one of the best base-running threats in baseball. He throttles up on offense for hustle doubles and on defense for rockets in the gap and everywhere else for the small moments that might make a difference.

Before and after every pitch, Robles is growing, his brain whirring to catch his physical talents. But there’s a purity when he’s running, the talent that propelled him from the la plaquita games to the fields with the concrete wall to this moment. The opponents have changed, yet they still afford his speed the same respect.

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The Nationals embrace it with hesitance. They want Robles to use his feet but safely. They want him to slow down before an injury forces him to. Yet Robles knows he wouldn’t be here without the fire, and he grapples with that divide while ultimately believing it’s crucial.

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“I don’t see myself changing now,” Robles said. “That’s what got me here, and I’m going to play the same.”