Bullpen comes through for Nats in tight win over Phillies

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals made a move to bolster their bullpen today, signing Andrew Chafin to a $1 million, major league deal. But the veteran left-hander won’t be joining the team until Friday in Cincinnati, and with Colin Poche designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for him, the Nats were left with a depleted relief corps for tonight’s series finale against the Phillies, one that featured only one lefty.

So it was up to bench coach Miguel Cairo, filling in for Davey Martinez while the manager was away at the funeral of his longtime agent, to figure out how to cobble together the final four innings of a tight ballgame against a tough opponent with limited resources at his disposal.

And when the Nationals found a way to survive, getting four scoreless frames from the trio of Jose A. Ferrer, Jorge López and Kyle Finnegan, they were able to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy a hard-earned, 4-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in this clubhouse that was worried,” first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said. “It was just a matter of time before the guys get their feet under them. … It’s OK to believe in your teammates and understand they’re all going through something and trying to find a way to be the best version of themselves. Really happy with the result tonight.”

It didn’t come easy. Ferrer allowed one runner he inherited from Brad Lord to score in the sixth but wound up recording six outs to bridge the gap to the back end of the bullpen. López had to face the heart of the Philly lineup and put two guys on base, but survived by inducing a 5-4-3 double play out of Nick Castellanos. Finnegan then overcame a two-out triple by Johan Rojas to notch his 10th save, avenge back-to-back blown save opportunities earlier in the week and ensure Lord would come out of this with his first career win.

“It’s a great lineup,” López said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “We’ve seen it the last three, four years. It’s a team that’s always in playoff contention, so you have to go, concentrate and make the adjustments to get the outs.”

Desperately seeking some early offense to give their pitching staff some room to breathe, the Nationals instead were once again forced to wait until much later into the proceedings to make things happen at the plate. But once they did, they did so with quantity in addition to quality.

Shut out through five innings by Taijuan Walker, the Nats finally broke through in the top of the sixth with four runs scored via all manner of action.

The conventional offense: CJ Abrams’ leadoff double, Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single (giving him a team-leading 25 on the year), Luis García Jr.’s RBI single to left. The less-conventional offense: Keibert Ruiz’s sharp grounder past Bryce Harper and down into the right field corner, with both Lowe and Ruiz chugging 270 feet around the bases but Ruiz sadly denied the first triple of his career when the official scorer ruled it a three-base error on Harper.

“Tiring. Very tiring,” Lowe said of his sprint from first through the plate. “And even more surprising to see Luis telling me to stay up behind home plate. Getting there without a throw was nice, but I feel like if I didn’t slide I probably would’ve crashed into the wall all the way back there.”

And then there was even more unconventional run production when Garcia and Dylan Crews pulled off a perfect double-steal, with Crews breaking from first and pausing as backup catcher Rafael Marchán’s throw sailed wide, with García then scampering home from third to give the Nats their fourth run of the inning.

“Something that we work on in spring training,” Cairo said. “Davey loves to do that. And we stole that run right there.”

With Michael Soroka set to make a third rehab start (Friday at Triple-A Rochester), Lord took the mound tonight not knowing what exactly the future has in store for him. He’s pitched reasonably well under the circumstances, but entering tonight the rookie had yet to complete five innings in the big leagues. Is he destined to head back to the bullpen, or perhaps even to the Rochester rotation, once Soroka is ready?

The way he pitched tonight against an imposing Phillies lineup, Lord certainly made a case to stay right where he is. He wasn’t just effective; he was remarkably efficient.

Lord scattered two singles over his first four innings, which he completed on a scant 41 pitches. He finally ran into some trouble in the fifth, allowing a one-out double to Max Kepler and a subsequent RBI single to Alec Bohm. But he rebounded nicely to get out of the inning with no more damage and his pitch count still a mere 61.

“It was really just mixing and matching pitches, trying to keep them off-balance, really trying to keep them off the fastball,” Lord said. “Me and Keibert had a plan and executed a lot of offspeed pitches. They were swinging at some well-executed stuff, and I was able to be pretty efficient with that.”

And because his teammates rallied for four runs in the top of the inning, Cairo felt comfortable letting Lord retake the mound for the bottom of the sixth.

That experiment didn’t last long when Lord surrendered back-to-back singles, bringing Kyle Schwarber to the plate and Cairo to the mound. The fill-in manager signaled for Ferrer, going to his only left-handed reliever for a big spot in the middle innings.

“That inning, I think it was the game,” Cairo said. “I think it was the game, so I brought Ferrer to face the big boys.”

It was an adventure, with Ferrer taking two rockets off his body, one of them plating a run. But he battled back to strike out both Max Kepler and Alec Bohm with changeups to get this game into the seventh with the Nationals leading 4-2. He then returned to toss a perfect second inning of relief, bringing his pitch count for the night up to 30 before he handed over the rest to his bullpen mates to finish one of their best collective performances during what to date has been a frustrating season.

“It’s really important,” Ferrer said, via Ortiz. “That’s what we have to do every day. The bullpen has to keep improving and keep helping, especially with the tight games.”