It all happened so fast from Cole Henry’s perspective. He entered a 3-1 game in the top of the seventh Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Four batters later, he departed a 7-1 game with many in the crowd of 17,232 booing.
The rookie reliever knew what was going on: “I’ve had a couple times this year where I just get too quick on my back side and start rushing,” he explained. But he couldn’t fix the problem in the moment, and so he was left to endure through a nightmare scenario that saw four straight Rockies batters reach base, the last two belting home runs to blow the game wide open.
A starter throughout his college and minor league career, Henry is learning on the fly how to deal with the unique responsibilities of life as a major league reliever. After a postgame conversation with Nationals pitching strategist Sean Doolittle, he realized he’s going to have to get better at making quicker adjustments in this role.
“As a starter, you have a couple innings to figure something out. As a reliever, you don’t have time,” he said. “You’ve got to figure it out within a batter. For me, it’s just trying to get back to the basics, try to stay within myself, not try to do too much. I just started pressing a little bit, trying to make stuff too perfect, trying to make my stuff nastier than what it needs to be.”
Henry’s rookie season has been an overwhelming success so far. He’s been scored upon in only four of his 24 outings. His fastball-curveball combo has been devastating for big league hitters when he commands both pitches. He entered Tuesday night with a 2.22 ERA and 10 strikeouts per nine innings.
But two of his appearances to date have been disasters. On April 28, in a game against the Mets that already was out of hand before he entered, Henry gave up five runs in one inning. And now this one, in which he gave up four runs without recording an out. His ERA skyrocketed to 3.70 in one fell swoop.
“We’re all pressing,” Henry said of a Nats club that has lost 10 straight. “We don’t want to be losing. Everybody is just trying to do their part and step up for the team. It’s just going to take a clean game from everybody.”
How does Henry get himself back on track in short order?
“Know that if I do what I’m supposed to, there will be good outcomes,” he said. “But the natural human (reaction): If something starts to go bad, you try to go faster and faster. I’m just trying to learn how to slow the game down and know that I’ve just got to figure it out quickly.”
Henry has been getting a crash course on the subject. Initially used in low-leverage spots by manager Davey Martinez, he gradually worked his way up the bullpen hierarchy. And at this point, he’s pretty much established himself as the team’s top setup man in front of closer Kyle Finnegan.
It’s still a learning process. And as Henry has learned, it can only happen on the mound in actual games, experiencing the pressure of late-inning relief for real.
“It’s really hard to mimic the kind of intensity that major league baseball games bring,” he said. “Every time I’m out there, it’s a new experience to get better. I’m just trying to learn every time, pick different guys’ brains and try to figure out what works best for me. And hopefully we can turn it around and get right back out there tomorrow and be back to normal.”