BOSTON – Davey Martinez managed his bullpen to perfection in last night’s 5-1 win over the Red Sox.
In a 3-1 game at the seventh-inning stretch and facing the Nos. 2-4 hitters in Boston’s lineup, the Nationals manager made the decision to go with Hunter Harvey in that moment instead of saving him for his usual spot in the eighth.
Harvey issued a leadoff walk to Rob Refsnyder, but quickly erased the baserunner with a double play ball from Tyler O’Neill. Then he got Rafael Devers, perhaps the Red Sox’s most feared hitter, to strike out on a curveball in the dirt.
That left Dylan Floro for the eighth to potentially pass the ball to closer Kyle Finnegan in the ninth. Floro retired the side in short order with three groundouts on 10 pitches.
“It's nice to have some veteran guys that understand how to pitch in high-leverage situations, especially in the back end of the bullpen,” Martinez said before Saturday’s game at Fenway Park. “Dylan fits that mold. Jacob (Barnes) fits that mold as well. But it was nice to know that, hey, the top of their lineup is tough. We could use Harvey in that moment. And then I like Floro in the middle to the bottom of that lineup. So we did it that way yesterday. Floro has been throwing the ball really well. We talked a lot about how he missed some spring training. But now he's got his feet underneath him, he's throwing the ball well.”