Grace ready to build on breakthrough campaign

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A breakthrough season in 2018 has pretty much cemented left-hander Matt Grace's place in the Nationals bullpen. Now the durable lefty is doing everything he can to keep his spot.

"Just keep looking for what's next in that next level," Grace said. "Talk to guys like Max (Scherzer) and stuff like that. It's a never-ending pursuit of how you figure this stuff out. It's just keep going, keep competing, keep trying to refine what you got."

Grace, 30, made a career-high 56 appearances last season, working to a career-best 2.57 ERA in 59 2/3 innings. His walks/nine innings went down from 3.2 to 2.0, while his strikeouts/nine innings rose from 5.6 to 7.2. He held opposing batters to a .240 average and registered a 1.140 WHIP.

More importantly, he defended himself against both right- and left-handed batters, turning in reverse splits. Righties hit .229/.272/.379, while lefties had a .258/.315/.315 line off the southpaw.

"He did a great job last year getting both right-handed and left-handed hitters out," manager Dave Martinez said. "He can do multiple things. Hopefully, if everything works out, he's a guy that can come in against lefties and he's really a guy that over the years has gotten lefties out, that's his deal. But he's really learned a lot about himself and his pitching, so I'm very comfortable letting him face both right and left. For me, he's one of those guys where he can do multiple things for us."

Grace has performed a variety of roles for the Nats in his four seasons. He's been a lefty specialist, a one-inning bridge, a long man and has even closed games.

His success last year bred confidence, in both the pitcher and the manager calling for him.

"In my mind, that's a positive thing," Grace said. "I enjoy it. It's just a matter of staying on top of everything to make sure you're in the best possible position to throw that workload. I learned that, you got to stay on top of everything - physical stuff, like sleep, eating the right way, resting, all that stuff. Hopefully, you just recover from those consecutive days of throwing as much as possible."

Grace has been durable, but he knows he has to answer the call regardless of how he's feeling on a particular day. Maybe he's just plain hit a rut and is struggling. Maybe he's just off. Perhaps he's warmed up multiple times over a couple of days and not gotten into games.

"In some of those situations, you just have to find a way to get people out without your best stuff," he said. "I think anyone can throw two days off and two days on. But in those situations when you're not feeling very well, you have to figure something out."

Relievers are like a car - even if you don't log a lot of miles in them, those short trips to the grocery store and church add up. Having confidence in the way your manager uses you goes a long way toward setting up a reliever for success.

Now entering his fifth season with the Nats, Grace is on his third skipper. Matt Williams preferred veteran arms out of the 'pen, while Dusty Baker was willing to use young pitchers once he thought he could trust them. Two seasons with Martinez have taught Grace to be ready.

"There are only so many things you can do to control a bullpen," said Grace, who has worked two innings this spring, allowing three hits and fanning one. "It's largely based on the situations in the game. How things are unfolding in general throughout a season. It's more dictated by what a game brings you than how people run the bullpen. So I don't think it was a huge adjustment. It can be difficult at times when you think you're throwing a lot, but it's just the nature of being in the bullpen."