CHICAGO – In his two months on the job, Miguel Cairo has established a clear policy on the deployment of his new closer. It doesn’t matter if it’s the seventh, eighth or ninth inning. If the game is on the line, and the opponents’ best hitters are due up, Jose A. Ferrer is going to be on the mound. And if someone else needs to finish out the game after that, so be it.
It’s a forward-thinking strategy that has served the Nationals’ interim manager well to date, and it worked to perfection today during a 2-1 victory over the Cubs.
With Ferrer retiring the top of the Chicago lineup in the bottom of the eighth, it was rookie Cole Henry trotting in from the bullpen for the bottom of the ninth and ultimately earning his second career save.
Those two back-end relievers weren’t alone in making this win possible. Brad Lord set the tone with 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in his best start in weeks. PJ Poulin finished off the sixth with a big out to strand the tying runner in scoring position. And Clayton Beeter worked around two more walks to record his ninth consecutive hitless inning of relief, keeping the one-run lead intact heading to the eighth.
Thus did Cairo have to decide how to manage the final two innings of a tight ballgame. With the top of the Cubs lineup due to bat in the eighth, he decided that was the time to turn to Ferrer, who took over closer duties after Kyle Finnegan was dealt at the July 31 trade deadline but has now been summoned in the eighth inning six times in his last 10 appearances with the Nationals tied or ahead.
Ferrer took care of business today, retiring the side in the eighth on 16 pitches, striking out Carlos Santana with a changeup and Seiya Suzuki with a perfectly placed 99-mph fastball on the inside corner.
Cairo could have brought Ferrer, who hadn’t pitched in four days, back out for a second inning of work. Instead, he trusted Henry to finish the game. And the rookie right-hander responded with three clutch outs to secure the save and make a couple of early runs provided by his own lineup hold up.
The Nationals took an ultra-aggressive approach when they faced Matthew Boyd two months ago in D.C. and had nothing to show for it. The Cubs' lefty retired the first 15 batters he faced that night, and he did it on a mere 45 pitches. They stuck with the game plan this afternoon, though, and finally had a little bit of offense to show for it.
The game’s first three batters each swung at, and put into play, the first pitch each saw from Boyd. And each recorded a hit this time, with CJ Abrams (back in the leadoff spot for the first time in a month) doubling off the ivy in right-center, James Wood (back in the 2-spot for the first time in a month) ripping a 112.6-mph single to left and Jorge Alfaro (batting third for only the seventh time in his career) delivering an RBI single to right.
Three pitches, three hits, and a 1-0 lead for the Nats. Alas, with an opportunity for a much bigger inning, they squandered it. Despite totaling four hits in the top of the first, they managed only the one run, with Dylan Crews striking out with the bases loaded and Chicago second baseman Nico Hoerner making a nifty play on Nasim Nunez’s sharp grounder up the middle for the third out.
Boyd would settle in after that and once again keep his pitch count low, making it through six innings on only 73 total pitches. He did so in no small part by picking off two runners at first base: Brady House in the second, Abrams in the fifth. That raised his season total to 10 pickoffs, a new Cubs franchise record.
The best way to avoid getting picked off? Hit the ball out of the park so you can enjoy a free trot around the bases. Which is exactly what Daylen Lile did to open the top of the fourth. One day after recording two triples, the rookie outfielder drilled a slider from Boyd into the right field bleachers for his fourth big league homer and a 2-1 Nationals lead.
With no margin for error, Lord had to be good. And the rookie was, putting together his best start in nearly a month. The only blemish: a leadoff double by Pete Crow-Armstrong in the bottom of the second, with the Cubs center fielder coming around to score on back-to-back groundouts.
Lord allowed only one other hit during his 5 2/3 innings, though he did issue a season-high four walks. More importantly, he recorded a season-high seven strikeouts, including a stretch of six consecutive batters during the third and fourth innings.
What allowed Lord to get back on track? Perhaps a return to his bread-and-butter pitch: his fastball. After giving up seven runs in only three innings Sunday against the Rays, Cairo had an important message for his rookie starter.
“You’ve got a really good fastball, a live fastball that a lot of people cannot hit. It gets to you quick,” Cairo told him. “Use your fastball. Attack the hitters.”
Sure enough, after throwing his fastball only 32 percent of the time against Tampa Bay, Lord threw it 46 percent of the time today. And he used it to put away five of his seven strikeout victims.