Washington Nationals: Bullpen woes continue in extra innings loss
By Blake Finney
The Washington Nationals bullpen has been stung hard by injuries of late. Its weakness was on full display in a crushing loss to the Miami Marlins.
The Washington Nationals Achilles heel in August has been its bullpen. It managed to blow yet another game on Saturday night against the Miami Marlins.
First off, in the top of the ninth inning, Justin Miller allowed a JT Riddle go-ahead homer. Miller continues to come back down to earth after an unreal start to his Nats career. He was bailed out by an Adam Eaton game-tying home run in the bottom half of the frame though.
Koda Glover then took the mound for the top of the tenth, but he managed to work himself into trouble. He ended up allowing a two-run single to Isaac Galloway and the Nationals couldn’t recover from it.
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With Glover’s pedigree, and with no disrespect to Galloway, he’s a hitter that he should put away with ease. But with the way things have been going, he couldn’t get it done, and that turned out to be the decisive blow.
Some will question manager Davey Martinez’s decision to walk Riddle before Glover faced Galloway, but that seemed like the right move overall. The more important story should be the complete lack of reliable options late in games.
Nobody has stepped up in the absence of Sean Doolittle, Kelvin Herrera, and Ryan Madson and it leaves narrow leads in permanent jeopardy right now. Far from an ideal spot.
Kieboom has a nice day in the lineup
One of the more underrated performances in the game was the performance of Spencer Kieboom. He managed to rip a double down the line early on in this one, and he also impressed with the glove.
Kieboom managed to nail two Marlins on the basepaths with his arm. The first came on a snap throw to first that just caught out Brian Anderson. It probably gave Nats fans flashbacks of Jose Lobaton in Game Five last year, but this time they were on the right end of it.
The rookie catcher also nailed Starlin Castro trying to swipe second base in the same inning. His .199 average is still far from good enough, but there’s a chance he can be a useful backup catcher in the future. His impressive defense in this game certainly didn’t do him any harm at all.
Rodriguez called up and put in a solid effort
In a somewhat surprising move, before the game, the Nationals announced that Jefry Rodriguez would get the start. This meant Tommy Milone was shifted to the bullpen, while Jeremy Hellickson was put on the DL to make room on the active roster.
It seems as though Martinez is taking the same approach with Rodriguez as he has with Hellickson. He’ll let him pitch through the order twice, and yank him at the first sign of trouble the third time through.
Given his current repertoire, this strategy makes sense and has been effective. But if the right-hander wants to be a useful starter in the majors, he needs to develop his changeup as a third offering. He only ended up throwing five on the night and didn’t throw his first until the fourth inning. He’s still not fully confident in the pitch, but this was at least a step in the right direction.
dark. Next. Nats must develop more pitchers internally
The Washington Nationals will go behind Gio Gonzalez on Sunday in the series finale. But with this loss, it will be a disappointing series no matter what the outcome on Sunday.