Column: Slumps are part of baseball. The trick for CJ Abrams is weathering them.

The CJ Abrams the Washington Nationals need if they’re going to scratch their way back to .500 and make the rest of this season interesting is in there somewhere. It’s the version who led off the first inning with a single to center, a steal of second base and a run to give the Nats a (brief) lead over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night. It’s the version who helped design this weekend’s giveaway at Nationals Park — a T-shirt with a green alien Abrams on it, surrounded by the phrase “Outta This World.”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Abrams said Tuesday afternoon, a gaudy alien necklace dangling on his chest. “They kind of gave me some ideas, and I picked which one I liked.”