Despite injury, new bullpen thrives in Nats' 3-0 win

PHOENIX - Davey Martinez was handed a brand-new bullpen tonight, and with that came a whole new strategy for managing the second half of ballgames.

After getting 5 1/3 scoreless innings from Joe Ross, Martinez was able to go straight to his relief corps, confident that group was deep enough to cover the rest of the game.

And it absolutely was deep enough. Two newcomers - Roenis Elías and Hunter Strickland - handled the sixth and seventh innings with ease. Holdovers Fernando Rodney and Sean Doolittle then took over from there and closed out a 3-0 victory that featured only one hit for the Diamondbacks - an infield single by the pitcher - for a most encouraging start to the Nationals' nine-game road trip.

"It's nice to have those guys that have actually pitched in the back of the bullpen, close games," Martinez said, "so we can do different things."

It all worked so well ... except for one potentially significant glitch: One of the new guys got hurt. Not while pitching. While trying to leg out an infield single.

Elías, after retiring both batters he faced in relief of Ross in the sixth, was asked to bat for himself in the top of the seventh. The reason behind that odd move: Martinez wanted Elías to face one more batter (the left-handed David Peralta) in the bottom of the seventh. And with an extra-short bench after Howie Kendrick was a last-second scratch with leg cramps, Martinez didn't feel like he could double-switch to prevent the pitcher's spot from coming up.

It wouldn't have been so bad had Elías (1-for-6 in his career as a hitter) simply struck out. Or at least jogged down the line after hitting a chopper over the mound. But the left-hander decided to try to beat it out, and in doing so he clutched his upper right leg and had to depart the game.

"He was told not to swing, about as many times as I could tell him, in Spanish and English," Martinez said. "But he's competitive, you know? He said sorry to me. But I told him: 'It's part of the game. You'll be fine, so don't worry about. But next time, you listen. Just listen. You're not here to hit, you're here to pitch.'"

Though the injury looked like a sure hamstring strain to anyone watching, both Martinez and Elías said they are hopeful it was merely an upper leg cramp. The lefty will be re-evaluated Saturday to be sure, but he expressed confidence he's not seriously hurt.

"I'm not that worried about it," Elías said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "I feel pretty good. I can walk around. It doesn't seem like it hinders me too much to walk around. We don't know yet the extent of the injury, but I'm positive it's not anything serious. And a few days out, I might be ready to go."

Serious or not, it was a head-scratching moment. But it couldn't completely overshadow an otherwise excellent pitching performance by the entire Nationals staff, which tossed the eighth one-hitter in club history (to go along with three no-hitters by Max Scherzer and Jordan Zimmermann).

To say this was an odd pitchers' duel is to put it mildly. Alex Young was making only the fifth start of his career, facing a tough Nationals lineup that has been very good against lefties. Ross came into the night with a 9.85 ERA and little evidence to suggest he was about to turn his whole season around.

And yet for five innings these two unlikely aces put up nothing but zeroes, albeit in unconventional fashion.

Young surrendered a leadoff single to Trea Turner to open the game, then didn't surrender anything else til Adam Eaton doubled to lead off the sixth. That double, though, would prove significant.

With two outs and Eaton still on second, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo decided to intentionally walk Brian Dozier and instead face Matt Adams. By the book, it made sense, especially considering Young had already struck out Adams in his first two at-bats.

But Adams, who found out he was starting only 10 minutes before first pitch because of the late scratch of Kendrick, has actually been quite good against left-handers this season. And sure enough, when he ripped Young's first pitch down the right field line for a two-run double, he now sported a hefty .308 batting average vs. southpaws.

"Third time seeing the guy," Adams said. "He's got good stuff. He's very, very deceptive with his spinning pitches, his off-speed pitches. Just tried to get the ball up, and got one I didn't miss."

Ross was all over the place early on, walking five of the Diamondbacks' first 11 batters. Somehow, he wriggled his way out of jams, whether inducing a double play to end the second or making a fantastic barehanded grab of a chopper to his right to end the third.

"I didn't think I was missing by much," Ross said. "Back-to-back walks in the third, or whatever inning that was. It seemed like every inning I walked the second batter, which is not ideal. But I guess better than the first batter. Small misses, but I made the adjustment to get back in the zone after that."

Arizona had baserunners, but zero hits for 4 1/3 innings. That finally ended when Young (of all people) legged out a chopper over the mound for his first career hit and his team's first hit of the night off Ross. Who would've guessed it would be the Diamondbacks' only hit of the entire night?

"Trea is one of the better shortstops in the game, and he did everything he possibly could to get the ball as quickly as possible over there," Adams said. "But it's just one of those balls that was in between and fell for them. But Joe did a great job. He looked comfortable and had all of his pitches tonight."

Ross, though, shrugged it off and finished out the fifth, then returned to retire one batter in the sixth before Martinez emerged from the dugout and signaled for his new lefty.

Elías did his job, retiring both batters he faced to get out of the sixth. And that figured to be the end of his Nationals debut. Until he stepped into the on-deck circle in the top of the seventh and an already weird game turned downright baffling, though ultimately victorious.

"It's good to see the guys we just added contribute right away," Ross said. "It's too bad to see Elías pull his hammy. I'm not sure exactly what happened. But they did a great job."