FORT MYERS, Fla. - Not that he ever wants to lose a ballgame, even those played in late February in front of 5,314 fans, but Dusty Baker couldn't have been too surprised by today's 5-2 loss to the Twins at Hammond Stadium, given the circumstances.
"Overall, we didn't play that well," the Nationals manager said. "This was our first game after a long bus ride, so I have mostly young guys here. We'll be better tomorrow."
Indeed, the Nationals brought only one regular member of their starting lineup, Anthony Rendon, on the 2 1/2-hour trip across the state while using pitchers that are mostly fallback options in case others are injured or ineffective along the way.
There were still several players worth watching closely in this one, starting with right-hander A.J. Cole.
The presumptive No. 6 starter in a rotation that has yet to see ace Max Scherzer face a live batter this spring, Cole opened his afternoon with a flourish, striking out heart-of-the-order guys Brian Dozier and Miguel Sano consecutively on 94 mph fastballs.
The stadium radar gun clocked Cole's fastball at 95 mph several times during his outing, a significant increase from the 90.8 mph his fastball has averaged in his brief major league career. That figure is more in line with the 25-year-old's velocity as he came up through the Nats' farm system, though, and could be the byproduct of the muscle he added during the offseason.
"He worked hard this winter," Baker said. "He worked real hard to gain some muscle strength. But I heard this is how he threw when he first got here. So perhaps he's back to where he was."
What was shaping up to be an encouraging start for Cole, though, ended on a sour note when he failed to complete the bottom of the second. He gave up three straight two-out hits - one of them a sharp grounder past a lunging Clint Robinson at first base, another a two-run homer to Jason Castro on a 3-2 changeup - and then was pulled after walking Byron Buxton to bring his pitch count up to 47.
Did Cole run out of gas?
"Could be, because he threw a lot of pitches," Baker said. "And then we made a couple miscues. And then threw a pretty good changeup to Castro, who hits changeups. They don't really know him. That was kind of a victim of not having a scouting report."
The most impressive pitching performance of the day came from another young right-hander who could be part of the Nationals rotation in the future, Erick Fedde, who retired all six batters he faced and struck out a pair. We'll have more on the 2014 first-round pick in the morning, but suffice it to say he was pretty pumped up about his first career appearance against major league batters.
Vance Worley preceded Fedde on the mound, the first opportunity the journeyman right-hander had to make an impression that could land him on the opening day staff. The 29-year-old right-hander gave up a run on two hits in the third inning but then bounced back with a scoreless fourth.
Worley has made 85 big-league starts, but he's been most successful the last two seasons with the Pirates and Orioles out of the bullpen, where he has the ability to pitch multiple innings in just about any situation. So even though the Nats could have a need for more starting depth, for now they're viewing Worley as a long reliever and emergency starter the same way they used Yusmeiro Petit last year.
"We're thinking probably more like a Petit role, because he can do everything," Baker said. "He's a spot starter. He's gone long (relief). That's a very valuable person for a role that he's trying to fill. I've seen him start, long, short, so he's kind of a utility pitcher. And that's a role we've seen him in since the days he started (with the Phillies). He's done a pretty good job everywhere he's been."