SAN DIEGO – If ever there was a time for Mason Thompson to rediscover his early season form, this was it.
With Carl Edwards Jr. on the injured list with a sore shoulder, the Nationals desperately needed someone else to step up and prove worthy of joining Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey in the back of their bullpen, and manager Davey Martinez specifically mentioned Thompson as the best candidate to do that.
So far, so good.
Thompson has tossed nine innings since June 4, all of them scoreless. He’s allowed only four singles and two walks in that time while striking out 10. And his best performance of this run might well have come Saturday night, when he recorded five outs across 1 2/3 innings in relief of Josiah Gray, bridging the gap to Finnegan and Harvey during a 2-0 victory over the Padres.
“It feels great,” the right-hander said. “For me, I always knew that I was one step away. Physically, I felt pretty good out there. I felt like maybe just one little mechanical tweak might get me back on track. Now I’ve kind of got back in that groove. For me, I just need to keep going out there and keep doing the same thing.”
Thompson’s season got off to a rousing start: Over his first 18 2/3 innings, he allowed only two earned runs, with an eye-popping, 17-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. That run culminated with a three-inning save against the Mets, after which he endured through a dismal stretch: In the span of 10 innings, Thompson allowed 13 earned runs, with an upside-down strikeout-to-walk ratio of 7-to-8.
The Nationals coaching staff picked up on a slight difference in Thompson’s delivery. He was short-arming his pitches, not pulling his arm back as far as he needed to before delivering each pitch, and that led to his loss of command and sharp break on both his sinker and slider. After extensive work in the bullpen with pitching coach Jim Hickey, Thompson fixed the glitch and now appears back to his peak form from April.
“He’s back throwing the ball really well, and he’s worked really hard on it,” Martinez said. “When he’s throwing strikes, his fastball plays, and his curveball and slider really play. He’s done really well, and I hope he continues to do that for us.”
Finnegan’s season hasn’t included the same arc as Thompson’s has. His rough outings have been sprinkled randomly throughout his good ones. But the right-hander has been on a decided upswing of late.
With a dominant, 1-2-3 eighth inning Saturday night in which he struck out both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto, Finnegan turned in his fifth consecutive scoreless outing, during which time he has walked only one while striking out six.
His fastball has seemed to have some extra juice as well, consistently hitting 98-99 as he has faced some of the sport’s toughest hitters in big spots.
“He’s really staying on his backside well right now,” Martinez said. “He’s getting a little bit more out of his lower half. But the big thing is the movement of his fastball. I went back last night and watched the fastball he threw Soto … that ball moves. It was two nasty pitches. The movement on his fastball has been really good.”