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ANAHEIM, Calif. – The wildest game of the Nationals’ season was knotted at 9 in the bottom of the sixth Friday night at Angel Stadium. Nobody who had taken the mound for either team had enjoyed any substantive level of success, and now here came Brad Lord out of the bullpen to face Mike Trout with nobody out and a runner in scoring position.
It was arguably the biggest head-to-head matchup Lord has faced yet in his rookie season. The trick for the young right-hander: Don’t think of it that way.
“Coming into any close game like that, you feel the pressure of: ‘I’ve got to shut them down, throw up a zero,’” he said. “I just try to treat it like any other outing. Execute the game plan, and go right after these guys.”
And then he did exactly that. Lord retired Trout on a sharp grounder to second, with Luis García Jr. making a nifty play on the ball hit to his left. He got Taylor Ward to ground out to short, a drawn-in CJ Abrams able to hold the go-ahead runner at third. Then he got Jo Adell to ground out as well and end the inning.
And then he went right back out there in the bottom of the seventh and recorded two more outs before finally departing having thrown 36 total pitches across 1 2/3 scoreless innings. And thanks to his teammates’ best offensive night in four years, Lord emerged from it all the winning pitcher in the Nats’ 15-9 thumping of the Angels.
“He understands that coming out of the bullpen, every pitch matters,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s done really well. Today, I didn’t want to use him for two innings. But where we were at in the game, I felt like we had to keep it close.”
That Lord has become perhaps Martinez’s most trusted bullpen arm outside of closer Kyle Finnegan speaks volumes about the 25-year-old’s ascension this season. Not that long ago, he was considered one of the organization’s top pitching prospects. But with a greater need in the bullpen for now, he has fully taken to that role and performed well enough to merit high-leverage assignments like the one he faced Friday night.
The difference between Lord’s six starts in April and May when Michael Soroka was injured and his 24 relief appearances sandwiched around them is stark. As a starter, he went 1-4 with a 4.44 ERA and 1.367 WHIP. As a reliever, he’s 1-1 with a 2.30 ERA and 1.245 WHIP, striking out nearly one batter per inning.
“Brad’s the ultimate teammate, and he’s the ultimate professional,” said Jake Irvin, like Lord a non-first-round draft pick who came up through the minors as a starter (though he’s remained in the rotation in the majors). “He continues to go out there and work really hard. There’s no ego to it for him. He goes out there, he wants to be a dog for this team and he wants to win. That’s what it’s all about.”
Along the way, Lord has learned how to approach relief appearances differently than he treated starts. With no margin for error in these games, he’s not holding back anything from his arsenal, recognizing he’s probably only going to face opposing hitters once a piece instead of twice or three times.
That might explain in part his final pitch of Friday night’s game. With two on and out in the seventh, he faced Angels pinch-hitter Zach Neto and blew him away with a 96 mph fastball on the inside corner. It was his 36th pitch, the third-most he has thrown in any relief outing this year.
“I emptied the tank there, definitely,” he said. “I felt the situation and just gave it everything I’ve got.”
Consider it another important step in Lord’s development at the big league level. Halfway through his rookie season, this unexpected bullpen contributor is figuring out how and when he can deliver his best offerings to help the Nationals win.
“You can’t let yourself get too amped up,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to control your heart rate and say: ‘Hey, I’ve got to execute this pitch right here. I’ve got to get it to this spot.’ You’ve got to be able to slow the game down. That’s what I’m learning, still learning how to do. It’s just taking everything in stride.”
