Morning notes: Robles, Holland and really long games

With left-handers starting for the Cubs the rest of the weekend, Victor Robles is most likely going to get some significant playing time and get his first major league start of the season. We got a taste of the dynamic rookie late during Thursday night's game, though, when he took over in center field as part of a double switch and found himself right in the center of action.

Robles pinch-hit in the bottom of the seventh with a runner on first and nobody out. He grounded to third but managed to hustle down the line to prevent a double play. Problem was, he then tried to steal second base and left too soon, allowing the Cubs to pick him off.

Robles, who struck out in his other at-bat, played the final three innings in center field, and thus shared a field with Juan Soto for the first time ever in a professional game. And he nearly made a spectacular play that might have saved the game in the top of the 10th.

With the go-ahead run on second and one out, Chicago's David Bote sent a line drive to right-center. Off the bat, it didn't look like anyone had a chance to get to it. But Robles, who was playing shallow and shaded toward left-center, nearly tracked it down. He might've even had a chance to make a diving attempt, but with Bryce Harper charging toward him from right field, he decided not to do that and instead reached for the ball and barely missed it.

"When I saw him closing in, I thought: 'Wow, he might actually get to the ball,'" manager Davey Martinez said. "He did, but the ball kept fading away from him. Man, he's got unbelievable closing speed. He plays pretty shallow, which kind of scares me a little bit. He was really shallow."

* The Nationals bullpen has admittedly been something of a mess for the last month, with most of the key late-inning contributors from earlier in the season either injured or traded to other clubs. That has opened the door for several unexpected relievers to get chances in big situations, and while some have struggled under pressure, Greg Holland has stepped up and performed in a manner much more reminiscent of his previous years in Kansas City and Colorado than his disaster of a first half in St. Louis.

Holland would have been used in a save situation Thursday night had the Nationals taken the lead in the bottom of the eighth. He still pitched the top of the ninth in a 4-4 game, and he kept the score intact with a 1-2-3 showing against the heart of the Cubs lineup: Javier Báez, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist.

It was Holland's 15th appearance with the Nationals, and the 14th time he has posted a zero while on the mound. He now sports an 0.69 ERA and 0.77 WHIP.

The Nats also got some big-time outs from lefties Matt Grace and Tim Collins, who each entered to face only one batter - old pal Daniel Murphy - and each got him to fly out harmlessly to left field.

* The Nationals aren't just losing games. They're losing long games.

Having now gone 2-5 on this penultimate homestand of the season, they're 69-72 overall. It's the first time they've been three games under .500 since April 30 (when they were 13-16). And it's the first time they've been three games under .500 this late in a season since 2011, when they were 77-80 but won three of their last four to finish 80-81.

That 2011 club, the precursor to the 2012 squad that won the first of the franchise's four division titles during this era, was built on strong pitching and a lineup that didn't score many runs. That led to plenty of quick games. Eight of their last 13 games that season were completed in fewer than 2 hours, 47 minutes.

That's not the case with the current club. Thursday's game was the Nationals' second in three days to last at least four hours. Six of their last eight games have lasted at least 3 1/2 hours, including each of the last four.

When someone says this is going to be a long September, it's literal.