Bautista on bouncing back from blown save

Felix Bautista

The same whistle played and the same video appeared with the flashing ballpark lights. The crowd roared as usual, quick to forgive the previous day’s blown save.

Félix Bautista wanted the ball again Sunday afternoon. He understands the life of a reliever, and how failings are magnified in the ninth.

The memory of the two-out, game-tying home run that he surrendered to Mike Ford disappeared like his first-pitch four-seamer. Bautista recorded back-to-back strikeouts, allowed a single and blew away another hitter to preserve a 3-2 lead.

The tying run stood on second base after a steal. Bautista’s first pitch to Teoscar Hernández was clocked at 103.4 mph, the fastest by an Oriole in the Statcast era that began in 2015.

How did we live without it?

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Looking at closer issues around baseball

Looking at closer issues around baseball
The Nationals lead the National League East despite a bullpen that brings daily turbulence. This week at Nationals Park they will see first-hand that they aren't the only team with late-inning issues. The Nationals' bullpen ERA (5.40) is 29th in baseball. Seattle's bullpen has the highest ERA in the majors at 5.44, while San Diego is 27th at 5.04. The Mariners and Padres play in D.C. this week. Edwin Díaz, and his blazing fastball, was the Mariners closer at the season's start, but he...
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Nationals tab Treinen as closer over Kelley, Glover

Nationals tab Treinen as closer over Kelley, Glover
FORT MYERS, Fla. - For more than six weeks, they considered their options, going back and forth in their minds, weighing the positives and the negatives for each of the candidates they had to open the season as their closer. And when the time finally came to make the call this morning, the Nationals made it with conviction. Shawn Kelley has experience. Koda Glover has the stuff. But Blake Treinen has both, not to mention a track record of good health. Thus, if Dusty Baker is fortunate enough to...
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Nats' most pressing spring question: Who's the closer?

Nats' most pressing spring question: Who's the closer?
The final countdown to spring training has arrived, and so we're spending the final days of the offseason counting down the Nationals' top storylines of the spring. We conclude today with the team's most pressing question in West Palm Beach: Who's the closer? When they departed the ballpark 122 days ago, dejected from yet another first-round loss in the postseason, the Nationals knew there was a chance they would have a different closer when they reconvened again in West Palm Beach. They...
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