Miller, Glover close out 5-4 win to end road trip (updated)

ST. LOUIS - It wasn't all that long ago that Davey Martinez had no shortage of established late-inning relievers at his disposal when he needed to try to close out a game. There was Sean Doolittle. There was Kelvin Herrera. There was Ryan Madson. There was Brandon Kintzler.

When Martinez looked down to that bullpen this evening at Busch Stadium, though, none of those established guys were there. Or, at least not on the active roster. No, when he needed someone to protect a one-run lead against a Cardinals club that was riding an eight-game winning streak, he could only turn to 31-year-old journeyman Justin Miller, then oft-injured 25-year-old Koda Glover to record the final nine outs needed to emerge victorious.

It was not a late-inning combo Martinez (or anyone, for that matter) could have envisioned being used in this kind of situation on August 16, but it's all he's got right now.

And some how, some way, it worked.

Miller and Glover combined to pitch three scoreless innings with no margin for error, and in the process led the Nationals to a desperately needed 5-4 victory at the end of a brutal road trip that all but delivered a death blow to the club's postseason chances.

"None of us like losing," Glover said. "I don't think anybody does. It's human nature. So I think we just need to get the wheels spinning a little bit and get a little momentum, and I think we will."

Actually, the Nationals did get themselves moving back in a forward direction tonight for the first time all week. It was the Braves who blew a ninth-inning lead to the Rockies shortly before this game ended. And so the Nats managed to gain ground, though they still trail Atlanta by eight games in the National League East.

"We needed a win today," manager Davey Martinez said. "To get on that plane and have a nice happy flight and come back tomorrow."

Though he was once again his recently brilliant self for five innings tonight, Tanner Roark finally faltered in the sixth, with some less-than-stellar play from his defense contributing. So the right-hander departed, and now it was left to the bullpen to attempt to finish this off.

Miller was the first man up, and the big right-hander delivered two huge innings of scoreless relief, overcoming a leadoff walk in the seventh to retire the next six batters he faced and get the game to the ninth having thrown a total of 30 pitches.

"When he came out of the seventh, I said: 'You got the eighth,'" Martinez said. "'You need to shut them down in the eighth. You get in trouble, we'll think of something.' But he looked good."

Miller, an early season revelation who forced his way into a few high-leverage spots, suddenly finds himself a key piece in this reconfigured bullpen.

"There's been a lot of change. It's unfortunate, a couple of injuries and stuff like that," he said. "But I don't really look at it like I've got the seventh or eighth, or anything like that. I just look at it as I'm trying to do my job, and I think that's how everyone else is trying to take it, too. Not trying to put too much pressure on us."

The Nationals lineup, which put 17 men on base in the game, could have made life a bit easier on Miller and Co. But that group scored only five early runs and then missed another opportunity tack on in the top of the ninth. So it was left to Glover to record the final three outs and finally secure a one-run victory (something this team had done only once in the previous 40 days).

And the hard-throwing right-hander did just that. Though he surrendered a two-out single to José Martínez and then walked Matt Carpenter, Glover got Yadier Molina to fly out to center on his first pitch to notch his ninth career save and at least momentarily erase the sting of Monday night's walk-off loss here.

"As you all know, the first game of the series didn't go as I would like for it to have went," Glover said. "To get put back in that situation, or even a better situation to get a save, yeah I'm happy with the outcome."

Martinez has mentioned frequently of late the need to score first, to put some pressure on the opposition and take some pressure off the Nationals. So the rookie manager had to be pleased with the quick 1-0 lead his club took in the top of the first, thanks to Trea Turner's one-out single and Bryce Harper's subsequent double just inside the first base line.

And Martinez had to be pleased when the Nats continued to give themselves more opportunities to score against both starter Luke Weaver and reliever Tyson Ross: They loaded the bases in three consecutive innings.

But while they did push across five total runs in the game's first five innings - Harper drove in three of them - the Nationals also left a lot of guys on base, missing an opportunity to open up a commanding lead. It was a very familiar pattern, and it had to leave plenty of observers uncomfortable even when they held a 5-1 lead.

Sure enough, the Cardinals struck in the bottom of the sixth. After cruising to that point allowing only one hit - Harrison Bader's solo homer in the third - Roark surrendered four hits in his final inning of work.

And Roark wasn't helped by his defense. Juan Soto took a poor route on Kolten Wong's hit to left-center and wound up letting a run score as he chased the ball down to the warning track. And Anthony Rendon made the latest in a series of lackadaisical throws across the diamond this week, this one preventing the third out from being recorded before another run crossed the plate.

"We won, that's all that matters," said Roark, now 5-0 with a 1.77 ERA since the All-Star break. "But it was a grinder. Just kept on going after them, not giving in."

Their four-run lead now down to one, the Nationals turned to their bullpen to close this one out. That group bears zero resemblance to the one that occupied that space only a few weeks ago. That doesn't diminish the importance of the innings those relievers are now being asked to pitch.

"They both stepped up huge," Roark said. "Justin stepped up very big: two innings, getting around a leadoff walk and them not scoring a run. Then Koda coming in and shutting the door, it's fun to watch."