Erik Davis shows great patience, finally back in big leagues after Tommy John recovery

Right-hander Erik Davis has returned to the Nationals as a September call-up. It has been a longer road than he anticipated getting back from Tommy John surgery in 2014.

But he has returned and made 37 appearances with three teams in the minors this season. He did well, going 1-2 with a 3.88 ERA and 47 strikeouts and 27 walks. His best run came with Double-A Harrisburg. Davis pitched in 24 games, going 1-0 with a 2.65 ERA.

He admitted that rehabilitation from a major surgery is not an easy task and took more time than he originally anticipated to get back to 100 percent.

"It's been a lot of ups and downs," Davis said from his locker next to Drew Storen in the Nationals clubhouse. "Definitely didn't go as smoothly as I anticipated initially, but I persevered through it, and my goal was to get back up at some point this year and I was able to accomplish that. Hopefully, I can get into a few games and have a little bit of success up here."

"He has shown great patience," said Nationals minor league pitching coordinator Paul Menhart. "I am so happy for him."

His goal was to return to pitching the way he did prior to the surgery. And that is easier said than done. In 2013, he pitched in 10 games for the Nationals and went 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA. So he has the ability to pitch at this level. Now he wants to do it for a full six-month campaign.

"It was more about getting back to the point where I could pitch and just be healthy and make it through a full season," Davis said. "That's always the biggest concern when your coming back from a surgery is that you don't reinjure it. Luckily to this point, I've been able to stay healthy through the season. I knew that if I could just get healthy, my talent was going to help me get back to the point where I wanted to. Now it's just picking up where I left off when I was here two years ago. Hopefully, I put myself in a good position going into next year."

Did his velocity and touch on all his pitches return to pre-injury form?

"That was the biggest thing was kind of learning how to pitch again," Davis said. "I think I went about 19 months between games. It was difficult for me to kind of get that back as quickly as I thought I would. But the more I got out there, the more they gave me the ball. I was able to find my feel for all my pitches. It gets better every time I go out there.

"I've always had a good changeup. That's always been my go-to pitch. It took a little while to find that again. I'm more of the type of pitcher that goes out and attacks hitters. Once I as able to get that confidence back, this year kind of just took off for me."

And after all that work to return to form, now he just wants to get into a game with the Nationals and see how his stuff plays again in the big leagues.

"It's always a goal to get back here, at the end of the year especially," Davis said. "I'm just happy to be here and hopefully help the team out."