Oct 8, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; Washington Nationals relief pitcher Ryan Mattheus (52) covers his face with his glove during the seventh inning of the 2012 NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won 12-4. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Acquired from the Colorado Rockies in a 2009 trade for Joe Beimel, Ryan Mattheus has emerged as an effective reliever in one of the majors’ best bullpens. Despite not making his MLB debut until the age of 27, Mattheus has pitched strongly to date. in 98.1 career innings, Mattheus has a 2.84 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. He is the team’s best middle reliever, given that Craig Stammen is a long reliever and Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen, and Rafael Soriano are all late-game relievers. In the playoffs last season, he accomplished the extremely rare feat of getting three outs with two pitches. However, advanced metrics have not been kind to him, and he has had a FIP over 4 in his to major league seasons. His projections, in kind, demonstrate some pessimism over his ability to maintain this level:

ZiPS: 49 IP, 35 K, 18 BB, 4.22 ERA, 1.35 WHIP

MLB.com: No projection

CBSSports: 32.2 IP, 18 K, 11 BB, 2.75 ERA, 1.19 WHIP

ESPN Fantasy: 64 IP, 41 K, 24 BB, 3.94 ERA, 1.34 WHIP

Averages: 48.2 IP, 31 K, 18 BB, 3.64 ERA, 1.29 WHIP

Despite Mattheus’ nearly identical ERAs in his first two seasons, two of our projectors doubt that he will replicate his early-career success. The main reason for this is also why Mattheus falls short in advanced metrics: his peripheral stats are weak. He has a career 4.9 K/9 rate, and a .252 baBIP against. These would indicate that Mattheus’s numbers are due to luck, but for these projections, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, given that he has maintained his performance over two seasons. A bit of regression is to be expected, however, so our official guess will be a low-3s ERA, with similar walk, strikeout, and innings pitched numbers to the average above. As a fantasy pitcher, he has no value. Despite his good ERA, his low strikeout numbers make him less valuable than the average middle reliever, who doesn’t have much value anyway. As a Nat, he will pitch mainly in the sixth and seventh innings, perhaps the eighth when another reliever is getting rest or a game is out of hand. He should continue to be an inexpensive and valuable option out of the bullpen for Davey Johnson.

Oct 7, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; Washington Nationals relief pitcher Ryan Mattheus (52) reacts after getting a double play ball to end the St. Louis Cardinals rally during the seventh inning of the 2012 NLDS at Busch Stadium. The Nationals won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

Despite allowing two runs in his second outing of the season and saddling himself with a 13.50 ERA, Mattheus quickly settled down, with just a 1.45 ERA in his next 17 appearances, from April 11th to May 20th. However, Mattheus then suffered an injury and was out until June 17th, but continued his stellar performance regardless. From April 19th to July 17th, Mattheus allowed only two earned runs in 26 IP, including none in the month of June, good for a 0.69 ERA. But immediately after this stretch, Mattheus hit a bit of a rough patch, allowing seven earned runs in just 4.1 IP over four appearances and raising his season ERA by 91%, from 1.69 to 3.22. However, as was his theme all season, he rebounded and got right back to shutting down hitters. He allowed only one earned run during all of August, and despite allowing seven runs in September, finished the season strong, with three scoreless appearances against the Phillies and Cardinals as the Nationals locked up the division crown.

In the postseason, Mattheus’s shining moment was escaping a no-out, bases loaded jam in Game 1 using only two pitches in a critical spot, as the Nats trailed by one. He got cleanup hitter Allen Craig to ground into a fielder’s choice, resulting in an out at home, and then got NL MVP candidate Yadier Molina to ground into a double play, marking the first time any pitcher has recorded three outs with just two pitches in the postseason. The Nats would go on to score two runs in the bottom of that inning, eventually crediting Mattheus with the win. He pitched another scoreless inning in a Nats loss in Game 2 before allowing two runs on three hits and a walk in the Nats’ 8-0 loss in Game 3. He would not appear for the rest of the season.

Season Highlight: His two-pitch, three-out, game-saving appearance in Game 1 of the NLDS.

Next Year: Mattheus, despite being 28 years old, is still not even arbitration eligible until 2015, and cannot become a free agent until 2018, when he will be 34. Look for Mattheus to remain a solid contributor to the Nats’ bullpen for years to come.

Previous Reviews:
Xavier Nady
Chien Ming Wang
Mark DeRosa
Henry Rodriguez
Carlos Maldonado
Brad Lidge

But in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Sunday, Ryan Mattheus got one of the more deserved wins a reliever could earn.

Ryan Mattheus played the part of magician in getting the Nats out of a bses-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh inning of Game 1. (Image: Jeff Curry, US Presswire)

Coming in to a bases-loaded, no-out situation and the Nationals trailing by a run in the seventh innings, Mattheus needed just two pitches to extricate himself from the jam and swing the momentum in the Nationals favor. Washington scored a pair of runs in the very next inning on Tyler Moore‘s pinch-hit RBI single and the Nationals held on for a 3-2 win over St. Louis at Busch Stadium.

Mattheus came on after Craig Stammen‘s second inning of work didn’t match his first, a scoreless sixth to keep the game a 2-1 affair. St. Louis had done very little offensively to that point but led thanks to a supremely wild inning by Nats starter Gio Gonzalez in the second, featuring four walks and a wild pitch that led to two Cardinals runs without the benefit of a hit.

To that point, David Freese had the only St. Louis knocks, singles in the fourth and sixth. But Jon Jay, leading off the seventh for the Cardinals, should have had the team’s third hit as his smash down the first base line took a funky hop and handcuffed Adam LaRoche. The speedy Jay beat LaRoche’s flip to the bag and the sure-handed first baseman was charged with an error, but that was the least of Washington’s worries.

Carlos Beltran followed Jay with a single to center field and Stammen then clipped Matt Holliday‘s jersey with a pitch, loading the bases with no one out. Davey Johnson summoned Mattheus, and the great escape was on.

“[Bullpen coach] Randy [Knorr] just told me, ‘Let’s get three outs before anyone touches home plate,’” said Mattheus to MLB.com’s Tracy Ringolsby.  “It didn’t make any difference if it was three line drives or three strikeouts. We just needed three outs.”

Making matters worse for Washington was the fact that the Cardinals had the middle of their order due to hit. Washington had the corners in and the middle infielders half way, appearing to be willing to trade a run for two outs on a ball up the middle. But when Cardinals clean-up man Allen Craig, the National League leader in batting average with runners in scoring position in 2012, hit Mattheus’s first pitch on a bounce to shortstop, Ian Desmond fired home, cutting down Jay at the plate and maintaining the 2-1 scoreline.

Almost before anyone had time to digest that play, the inning was suddenly over. Yadier Molina again swung at Mattheus’s first pitch, another bouncer to the left side. Ryan Zimmerman picked it and slung to Danny Espinosa at second, who survived a quality take-out slide by Craig to nail Molina at first for an inning-ending double play. Just like that, the Cardinals threat had been extinguished and Mattheus left the mound fired up.

“Yeah, there was definitely some emotion,” Mattheus said to CSN’s Mark Zuckerman. “That’s the biggest game I’ve been in. Those are the biggest three outs and the two biggest pitches I’ve ever made. So being down one run, I wanted to pump the team up and hopefully get some momentum back in our direction.”

Clearly, this was the moment when momentum packed up her bag and started to make her way over the Washington dugout, taking up residence permanently with Moore’s hit. And the icing on the cake? After throwing just two pitches, Mattheus will be available again for Monday’s Game 2.