More from Barraclough on what's wrong with beleaguered bullpen

The Nationals bullpen has failed this season at times, but the way they gave up the game Friday night was pretty spectacular.

When it counted most, the 'pen allowed a whopping nine runs on nine hits.

Push back to the seventh inning, and the total rises to 11 runs on 12 hits.

It was a miserable night after Max Scherzer had fought back from a slow start of his own to keep his team in the game. When he left, the Nats were down only 3-2.

They lost 14-6.

Justin Miller, Joe Ross, Kyle Barraclough, Dan Jennings and Matt Grace combined to surrender the 11 runs. Miller left with a rotator cuff injury and is likely headed to the injured list.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez did not bounce around the troubling issue after the loss.

"It's frustrating, trust me. Like I said (Thursday), the bullpen did a heck of a job and then (Friday night), same guys, didn't get the job done," Martinez said. "So it is frustrating, especially when the game was within reach.

"For me, the biggest thing is getting ahead of hitters. When they fall behind, those guys are good hitters. When you're 2-0, 1-0, 3-1, 3-2, and they battle but you got to get ahead. You got to get ahead."

Barraclough got roughed up in his outing. The lowlight was allowing back-to-back homers in the span of three pitches to Kyle Schwarber and Kris Bryant. But Barraclough had battled Schwarber through 13 pitches and a full count before Schwarber unloaded with the game-changing two-run shot in the eighth that made it 7-4 Cubs.

The right-hander gave up three runs on three hits in 1/3 of an inning. He threw 21 pitches, 16 for strikes. So 13 of his 21 pitches were in the Schwarber at-bat. He tried to explain what the bullpen was feeling after a loss like that.

"That's obviously really frustrating," Barraclough said. "Then you get some guys that throw well and some guys that struggle. Outside of (Sean Doolittle) everybody's had their ups and downs, so you can't piece it together, just because you're trying to ride hot streaks and then that guy stumbles, other guys step up. It's baseball, there's ups and downs, and we're still trying to figure it out."

Barraclough's ERA dropped to 4.86. But the bullpen as a whole now has a collective ERA of 6.20.

Barraclough said he thinks he knows what he is doing wrong when things go south: "I know, for me, sometimes just putting in too much effort, (the) ball tends to get away from me and miss spots, and then bad things happen. It's individual. Everyone's got their own individual things that they're working on. I think that's just how it is."

He said that bullpen coach Henry Blanco and pitching coach Paul Menhart will sit down and talk with a reliever going through a rough patch. But what happens when more than one bullpen guy is struggling?

"I'm not sure," Barraclough said. "It's really hard one, because everybody, I think, is trying to get better every day. Individually, everybody is doing something different to try and get better, so it might be one person trying to do one thing and then another doing another. Who knows if that's causing a new problem or if it's just the same old thing."

One major issue the Nats will have to attend to today is replacing an injured player. Miller is the next pitcher heading to the injured list. The Nats could activate left-hander Tony Sipp today and have him skip his intended rehab assignment for high Single-A Potomac. Or they could call up another pitcher from the minors.

Either way, the problems the bullpen is facing are not falling on one player. Besides Doolittle, the entire 'pen has work to do for the Nats to get this turned around.