Treinen, Romero, Glover combination works for Nats this time

PITTSBURGH - It's only one game, and lord knows we've been teased a few times already this season by one strong performance from the Nationals bullpen into thinking it's a sign of better things to come.

So don't put too much stock in what took place over the final three innings of tonight's 8-4 victory over the Pirates.

But don't ignore it altogether, either, because it did include some notable developments that could possibly portend more good things to come.

Start with Blake Treinen, who was handed the ball and asked to pitch out of a dilly of a pickle: two on, nobody out, three runs already across the plate and a game that had been in the Nationals' control very much slipping away.

It was a major display of faith from Dusty Baker in Treinen, who has endured through a difficult six weeks to open this season but has thrived in this fireman role before. And Treinen promptly rewarded his manager for that display of faith, getting Josh Harrison to ground into a double play on his very first pitch, then striking out Andrew McCutchen to quash the Pirates' rally and wrest control of this game back.

"I think that's just why he's so important to our bullpen," starter Stephen Strasburg said. "Get him out there, and he can throw one pitch and get two outs. He can really kill rallies."

For Treinen, this was an outing reminiscent of so many from 2016, when he led all major league relievers with 17 double plays induced. This was only his fourth induced so far this year.

"I was just trying to keep the ball down and let my sinker work," said the right-hander, who threw all six of his pitches for strikes. "And it ended up working out. It's kind of nice to see some positive results on some executed pitches."

Treinen, who entered with an 8.10 ERA and 38 baserunners allowed in 16 2/3 innings, certainly needed some positive results. If he's looking for a confidence boost ... well, he has retired the side in two of his last three appearances after failing to do it at all in his previous 14 games.

"Huge inning out of him," right fielder Bryce Harper said. "Two guys coming up there in Harrison and McCutchen, both of them hit the ball pretty well. So to be able to get that double play and that strikeout is a huge boost of confidence for him. And a huge inning for us to get out of there."

The Nationals took that performance from Treinen and ran with it. Instead of melting in the eighth and ninth innings, they got a 1-2-3 frame from Enny Romero, then a scoreless ninth from Koda Glover (albeit one that included a pair of two-out hits to make things a little tense for a moment).

Though they aren't hiding the fact they expect to look outside for bullpen help at some point this summer, the Nationals also know at least a few members of the current relief corps is going to have to play a significant role when it's all said and done. And so Baker has been trying out every combination he can think of to get through the late innings unscathed.

The combination Baker tried tonight might prove the Nationals' most-effective. Treinen thrived in the seventh inning last season, putting out fires left and right. Romero has the stuff to be an electric, late-inning weapon, and the left-hander showed it with his perfect eighth inning tonight on 17 pitches.

"Enny had a clean eighth; that was big," Baker said. "We're still in the process of trying to figure it out and get it together."

Glover was far from perfect in the ninth, and his heavy workload (29 pitches, 21 strikes) may disqualify him from pitching Wednesday night. But it was more than notable that Baker chose the 24-year-old for the final inning, especially when the lead was only 6-4 before Harper's two-run homer provided some extra cushion.

Asked afterward if Glover had earned the right to pitch the ninth inning on a regular basis, Baker gave more than a lukewarm response.

"Well, we gave it to him tonight. We'll see," the manager said. "Usually he throws strikes, and he throws quality strikes. He wants a shot at (closing). But he threw a lot of pitches in that inning. We want him to cut his pitch count down so he can throw the next day and the next day."

Right now, the Nationals can't think much about the next day. They're too busy trying to cobble together today's bullpen.

On this day, they were successful.