Suzuki's pregame throwing drill helps his pitcher's in-game success

Suzuki's pregame throwing drill helps his pitcher's in-game success
During early pregame at Nationals Park, Kurt Suzuki and bullpen coach Henry Blanco perform a catching drill in the outfield. Suzuki stands in uniform with his catcher's glove and a baseball in center field, about 50 to 60 yards away from Blanco, who takes his spot on the right field foul line close to Nationals bullpen. Suzuki begins the program by throwing the baseball as hard as he can to Blanco, who catches it and throws it back. After Suzuki throws the first ball, he walks toward Blanco...

Seven relievers post five zeros in Nationals' win (updated)

Seven relievers post five zeros in Nationals' win (updated)
Davey Martinez can wish for more innings from his rotation. Until it actually happens, he has no choice but to ask for a lot from his bullpen. That unit couldn't finish the job Monday night during a gut-punch loss in Atlanta. Tonight, seven different relievers joined forces to pitch five scoreless innings and complete the job. And when Daniel Hudson, pitching for the third straight day and only 24 hours removed from an ugly blown save, closed it out in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals...

Hudson on allowing walk-off homer: "It stinks"

Hudson on allowing walk-off homer: "It stinks"
The Nationals bullpen walked the tightrope all night long as it attempted to hold the lead and managed to find a way to get within one out of pulling it off. Until all that walking on a tightrope turned into a walk-off. Dansby Swanson delivered a dramatic two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Nats closer Daniel Hudson, part of a four-run Braves rally that resulted in a stunning 7-6 loss. "They're really tough, man," Hudson said during a postgame Zoom video call. "They don't hurt...

Pair of ninth-inning homers off Hudson shock Nats (updated)

Pair of ninth-inning homers off Hudson shock Nats (updated)
Yes, they already played 19 games over the last 3 1/2 weeks, an erratic stretch of games their manager referred to as "seesaw baseball." In practical terms, 2020 really began for the Nationals tonight in Atlanta with their first game against their top division rival in a season that will be defined by intradivisional play. The first of 10 games between the Nats and Braves was exactly what you'd expect it to be: a tense, tight, perhaps contentious battle between a couple of heavyweights that...

Heated Nats eke out 6-5 win to take weekend series (updated)

Heated Nats eke out 6-5 win to take weekend series (updated)
BALTIMORE - A game that featured a lot of quality at-bats by a reconfigured lineup, a heated (and very audible) exchange with the plate umpire that led to the ejection of the hitting coach and dismissal of a pitcher watching from the stands, a dominant start by Max Scherzer that imploded via a couple of monster home runs and then a gift error to allow the go-ahead run to score ultimately came down to the two flamethrowers the Nationals now deploy at the back of their bullpen. The Nats were...

Harris returns, Romero to active roster, Doolittle to IL

Harris returns, Romero to active roster, Doolittle to IL
Nationals manager Davey Martinez delivered news this morning from a rainy Citi Field, where the Nats hope to wrap up their four-game set with the Mets before they board the train for Baltimore tonight. The club announced that left-hander Sam Freeman has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left flexor mass strain. He had a 0.00 ERA in five innings so far this season. The team activated right-hander Will Harris from the injured list following his recovery from a right groin...

Bullpen rounding into form, even with Doolittle on the outs

Bullpen rounding into form, even with Doolittle on the outs
Every team enters every season thinking it has its bullpen plan in place. Who's going to close. Who's going to set up. Who's going to get lefties out. Who's going to pitch out of jams. And then the season begins, and every team realizes that plan going in isn't going to work and has to start adjusting on the fly. Truth be told, it takes months for a bullpen to truly take shape. A manager needs to see how different pitchers handle different situations. He needs to see who's healthy and...

Turner's early homer and late sliding catch bookend 2-1 win for Nats

Turner's early homer and late sliding catch bookend 2-1 win for Nats
Trea Turner went 2-for-4, smacking a solo homer over the right field wall on the game's second pitch and then helping the Nationals with his defense late in a nail-biting 2-1 win over the Mets at Citi Field on Tuesday night. The blast was the 10th leadoff home run of his career, a new Nationals record. With a home run and a single to start the contest, Turner was in the midst of five hits in his last six at-bats in the series. He now has two homers in the first two games in New York. After...

Scherzer, bullpen team up for tight win over Mets (updated)

Scherzer, bullpen team up for tight win over Mets (updated)
They can't all be laughers. The Nationals couldn't go into Citi Field tonight and expect to blow out the Mets again. No, they were going to need to win a tight ballgame if they wanted to remain perfect on the road. And it doesn't get any tighter than 2-1. Thanks to a gutsy start from Max Scherzer in his return from a nagging hamstring ailment, a couple of quick runs off Rick Porcello and lights-out work from the back end of their remade bullpen, the Nationals eked out a tense, low-scoring...

Harris back with Nats, live BP session set for Tuesday

Harris back with Nats, live BP session set for Tuesday
Reliever Will Harris made the trip to New York as a member of the five-man Nationals taxi squad, a good sign that if everything goes well this week, he could be back in the bullpen at the end of this series or in Baltimore. Manager Davey Martinez said Harris will throw to live batters tomorrow and that will be the final test to see how his tender groin has recovered the past 10 days. "I talked to him today (and) he said he felt good," Martinez said on a pregame Zoom call from Citi Field. "We...

Early offense, late escape acts give Nats another win (updated)

Early offense, late escape acts give Nats another win (updated)
The Nationals burst out of the gates tonight to take a quick five-run lead on the Mets. Then they decided to find out if they could make those five runs hold up behind Patrick Corbin and four relievers, with a rain delay thrown into the middle of it all for good measure. The answer: They could. By the skin of their teeth. Tonight's 5-3 victory over New York didn't quite go according to script. Not that Davey Martinez could've predicted this particular script, which included an out-of-nowhere...

Tanner Rainey meets with media after Sunday's workout

Tanner Rainey meets with media after Sunday's workout

Tanner Rainey leads the Nationals pitching staff with five appearances this season.

As others try to adjust, Rainey thriving early in Nats 'pen

As others try to adjust, Rainey thriving early in Nats 'pen
It's only been a week, and these things can change quickly and dramatically, but at this point Tanner Rainey looks like an outlier among major league pitchers. While others are watching their workload or dealing with noticeable drops in velocity, Rainey is thriving. He's one of only six National League relievers to appear in five games so far, and the others all pitch for teams that have played 10 games this season to the Nationals' seven. His average fastball velocity (95.3 mph) ranks among...

As Doolittle and Harris get right, Nats trust Rainey and Hudson

As Doolittle and Harris get right, Nats trust Rainey and Hudson
As the bottom of the eighth arrived Thursday evening, the Nationals leading the Blue Jays by three runs, Davey Martinez needed to decide which two relievers he would put on the mound to try to close out this victory. Based on both track record and recent usage, the answer appeared to be obvious: Will Harris for the eighth, Sean Doolittle for the ninth. Neither would pitch in the game. Instead, it was Tanner Rainey (pitching for the third straight day and for the fifth time in six days) in the...

Castro and Kieboom lead Nats to 6-4 win in series finale (updated)

Castro and Kieboom lead Nats to 6-4 win in series finale (updated)
The Nationals had to leave a lot of firepower on the bench in Thursday's series afternoon finale. Howie Kendrick is recovering from tightness in his upper back, Eric Thames was not in lineup because the Nats were facing a left-hander and Juan Soto is still awaiting clearance from the D.C. Department of Health to return to the field for workouts. Plus, the Nats were up against left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu, the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the National League Division Series for the Dodgers in...

Hudson and Rainey step up with power pitches to finally drop Blue Jays

Hudson and Rainey step up with power pitches to finally drop Blue Jays
In pitchers' duel that continued into the late innings of a scoreless tie, the Nats bullpen took center stage. After the Nats finally got on the board, a pair of power relievers completed the shutout. Daniel Hudson and Tanner Rainey combined to strike out six batters over the course of the final eight outs as the Nats notched a much-needed win in a 4-0 shutout of the Blue Jays in 10 innings. Max Scherzer pitched into the eighth, but gave up a single and later a walk in that inning. With one...

Status report on bullpen as opening day draws closer

Status report on bullpen as opening day draws closer
The Nationals bullpen got off to an incredibly rough start in 2019. The Nats struggled in losing 31 of their first 50 games before key additions helped them to recover as the season progressed. But the Nats bullpen's overall ERA for the regular season was still an uncomfortable 5.66. In a season with just 60 games on the schedule, that early season weakness from a year ago cannot repeat itself or the Nats will be in big trouble. Daniel Hudson, a critical acquisition during the season, became...

State of the Nats roster: Bullpen

State of the Nats roster: Bullpen
We continue today a periodic look at the state of the Nationals roster at the point spring training was suspended and project how things may look whenever baseball is played again. Up next is the bullpen... Team officials are always going to speak optimistically about their roster during spring training. If you can't be positive in February and March, what hope do you have? But the optimism the Nationals displayed in West Palm Beach over their bolstered bullpen was genuine. They legitimately...

Focused Rainey won't assume Nationals bullpen job is his

Focused Rainey won't assume Nationals bullpen job is his
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. - Every time manager Davey Martinez or general manager Mike Rizzo outline their plans for the Nationals bullpen, they include hard-throwing right-hander Tanner Rainey. And with good reason. Throw triple-digit fastballs complemented by a wipeout slider and you make people take notice. But any thoughts that he's secured a position in the Nationals relief corps is definitely news to Rainey, a 27-year-old who has no intention of assuming anything while he battles to make the...

Early spring reasons to be encouraged or discouraged

Early spring reasons to be encouraged or discouraged
Spring training is only 33 percent complete at this point. Two weeks have passed since pitchers and catchers reported to West Palm Beach. Four weeks remain until the Nationals face the Mets at Citi Field and officially begin their title defense. So it's probably unfair to start drawing any conclusions yet. But it's not unfair to point out some things that appear to be going well at Nats camp and some things that appear not to be going so well. With that in mind - and since I'm writing this...