Fedde departs with injury in second inning (Nats down 2-0)

Whatever good vibes the Nationals hoped to get from their annual Independence Day morning game quickly dissipated in the top of the second inning when Erick Fedde walked off the mound with an apparent injury and left this reeling pitching staff in a major bind as it tries to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.

Fedde threw only 25 total pitches, four of them to Rafael Devers to lead off the top of the second. His fastball velocity, which topped out at 95 mph in the first inning, dropped to 87 mph during the Devers at-bat. And his final pitch - which showed up on MLB.com's Statcast program as a "splitter," even though Fedde doesn't feature that pitch in his repertoire -- registered only 80 mph.

That's when director of athletic training Paul Lessard and pitching coach Derek Lilliquist walked out to the mound to have a long chat with Fedde. Manager Davey Martinez eventually joined them, and despite the lengthy conversation, Fedde never attempted to throw a warmup pitch before Martinez signaled to the bullpen.

The Nationals don't typically provide injury information in-game, so everyone will be left to speculate until this contest is over. In the meantime, Matt Grace is attempting to provide as many innings as possible before Martinez has to turn to the rest of his bullpen, which in the last week has dropped from a nine-man to a seven-man unit with the demotion of Sammy Solís and the designation of Tim Collins for assignment.

Fedde last pitched Friday night in Philadelphia, a game in which he was pushed to a career-high 115 pitches over five innings, which allowed him to qualify for his first major league win.

"It's the most pitches he's thrown," Martinez said after that game, a 17-7 win. "He needed to eat the innings, because we wanted to save the bullpen. But he did well."

If Fedde - who had Tommy John surgery shortly after he was drafted out of UNLV in 2014 and was shut down last fall with a forearm strain after his velocity dipped - is unable to make his next start, the Nationals could bring right-hander Jefry Rodriguez back from Triple-A Syracuse. Stephen Strasburg, out since June 8 with right shoulder inflammation, is scheduled to throw a simulated game this weekend and appears to be on track to return from the disabled list around the All-Star break.

Update: The Nats bullpen did an impressive job in the wake of Fedde's early deaprture. Grace pitched four scoreless innings on only 46 pitches, allowing Martinez to turn to the back of his bullpen the way he normally would. Brandon Kintzler pitched a scoreless sixth. But Ryan Madson got into trouble in the seventh, with runners on the corners and one out, then things fell apart. Adam Eaton made a sliding catch in foul territory of Jackie Bradley Jr.'s shallow fly ball, but he couldn't quite get to his feet and make a difficult throw to the plate in time to get the lead runner tagging up. Worse, the ball scooted past Madson and into the dugout, allowing the trailing runner to advance to third. That put him in position to score when Madson bounced a 3-2 changeup with two outs. Just like that, the Nats trail 2-0 in the seventh and need to find a way to get something going at the plate.