After another ragged start, Jackson goes back to drawing board

Edwin Jackson has authored one of the best feel-good stories of the summer for the Nationals, an unlikely source of competent pitching when the club desperately needed someone to step in and replace the injured Joe Ross.

Those who have watched the right-hander throughout his long and winding career, though, have known he's always in danger of regressing back into the form that has forced his career to be long and winding.

And over the last few weeks, those fears have come to fruition.

It came to a head during Friday night's 7-0 thumping at the hands of the Dodgers, when Jackson was tagged for three homers and two more drives to the warning track during 3 1/3 unsightly innings. But this was merely the culmination of a steady downward spiral that began earlier this month in Milwaukee.

Over his first eight outings with the Nationals, Jackson went 5-3 with a 2.94 ERA, churning out six quality starts. It was everything the club possibly could have asked for from a guy who assumed the No. 5 starter's job after Ross needed Tommy John surgery.

But beginning with his Sept. 3 start against the Brewers and continuing through Friday night's outing, Jackson has gone 0-3 with a 12.71 ERA. He has put 24 men on base in only 11 1/3 innings and served up seven homers.

"Unfortunately these last couple starts, they've been terrible," he said. "I haven't really given us a chance to win any games, which is what I'm not here to do. I have to clean it up, quick, fast and in a hurry."

Jackson attributed Friday night's struggles to an inability to throw his off-speed pitches for strikes. That forced him to rely on his fastball, and he felt the Dodgers were able to sit on that pitch and ultimately drive a bunch of them deep the gaps.

"When he's missing, he's missing out over the plate, and they're not missing," manager Dusty Baker said. "He's made some quality pitches, but when he misses, it's right over the plate, right around waist-high. Just gotta keep the ball down or elevate upon command."

Jackson has never hidden from his struggles, never tried to blame anyone else for them. He also tends to know why he is struggling (poor mechanics) and that at least helps him come up with a game plan to address it.

"I think right now I'm just kind of off, which has caused me to be in a kind of funk, which you've seen the last couple starts," he said. "I'm pretty sure even the ones I had early when I was kind of off a little bit, it wasn't this bad. I just have to continue to work. I've worked too hard to let a couple starts affect me. And I've worked too hard to finish the season up like this. I'll definitely continue to work and be ready to bounce back and finish the season strong like I started."

Jackson likely will have two more regular season starts to prove he has solved the problem. He has appeared for a while to be a candidate for a long relief role in the Nationals' postseason bullpen, but he'll need to show dramatic improvement in a short period of time to convince club officials to keep him on the October roster.