New bullpen duo finishes off Roark's strong start

PHOENIX - There are two traits required to pitch the eighth and ninth innings in the big leagues. The obvious one is stuff, the exceptional repertoire of pitches that gives a guy the best chance to retire hitters with the game on the line.

But the other one, many believe, is more important. There's no one word for it, and some of them aren't clean enough to use on a family website, but let's just use the term Dusty Baker used tonight in describing why Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle were able to escape jams in both the eighth and ninth innings to secure the Nationals' 4-3 victory over the Diamondbacks: Guts.

"That'll take you a long ways," Baker said. "When you're fearless and the team is behind you, you know that he's going to find a way to beat you."

Madson and Doolittle would not have been in a position to show off their, uh, guts if not for Tanner Roark's best start of the season (two runs, three hits, 11 strikeouts in seven innings) and if not for the offensive exploits of Bryce Harper (solo homer, RBI double) Ryan Zimmerman (RBI double) and Anthony Rendon (RBI infield single).

But the Nationals would not have walked out of Chase Field with a victory if not for the manner in which their two newly acquired relievers pitched themselves out of jams with the game on the line at the end.

Madson was handed a 4-2 lead in the eighth, and though he surrendered a one-out double to Brandon Drury, the right-hander proceeded to retire both David Peralta and A.J. Pollock on ground balls. That leaves the veteran setup man 3-for-3 in scoreless appearances since his acquisition from the Athletics.

Doolittle's two save opportunities have been much more tense, both featuring leadoff walks and then some chaos behind him after that. But as he did Tuesday night in Anaheim, the left-hander kept his cool and finished things off, brushing aside Anthony Rendon's uncharacteristic throwing error to retire Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Owings and Ketel Marte in succession.

The Diamondbacks may have pushed across an unearned run, but the only run that actually mattered never advanced past first base, thanks to Doolittle's calm under pressure.

"Once you start getting guys on base, the crowd, the energy of the stadium can kind of take over," he said. "And it speeds everything up. So you have to be mindful enough to step off the mound, slow the game down a little bit, kind of press reset and go back through the advance report, remind yourself what you've got to do, how you're going to start this at-bat by going strike one, and then go from there."

Consider the Nationals fully impressed with the job Madson and Doolittle have done in the last week, not to mention excited about the possibility of more bullpen reinforcements to come before next week's trade deadline.

"Madson's been great for us," Harper said. "And Doolittle, seeing him come over and do the things he's doing, he never panics, and it's great to see. Brings a lot of fun to the back end like that. Possibly, hopefully, get one more guy in that 'pen and have a three-headed monster."

Harper gave the Nationals a quick lead tonight, thanks to a titanic blast off rookie Anthony Banda. The ball soared over the Chase Field pool in right-center field and landed on the concourse high above, a drive of perhaps 450 feet that put the Nats up 1-0 and extended Harper's career-best hit streak to 15 games.

Roark did give that run right back in the bottom of the first, but the right-hander quickly found his groove after that. Relying more on breaking balls with two strikes than he typically has this season, he piled up strikeouts at a rate you've come to expect from Max Scherzer or Stephen Strasburg but not their less-heralded rotation mate.

By the time he was done, Roark had piled up 11 strikeouts (only the third double-digit strikeout performance of his career) with only three coming via fastballs. For a guy who has been searching all year for the answer to what ailed him, this might have been a turning point.

"Confidence-wise, I feel through the roof," Roark said. "If you go out there, have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself, stuff happens behind you, you can't let that bother you or affect you. You just have to keep going and keep making your pitches."

Roark's teammates rewarded him for his efforts by finally stringing together some hits the third time their lineup faced Banda. Chris Heisey got things started by legging out a triple into the left field corner, giving Harper an opportunity - rare lately - to bat with a runner on base (though Heisey tweaked his groin on the play and may be unavailable to play Sunday). Harper responded with a run-scoring double to left field, giving him 75 RBIs on the season and raising his batting average to .339.

Zimmerman followed with a laser of a double off the center field wall to bring Harper home, and when Anthony Rendon beat out a chopper to third, Zimmerman scampered home with the third run of the inning to extend the Nationals' lead to 4-1.

The Diamondbacks got one more run off Roark in the sixth to trim the lead to 4-2. But no worries, because the Nationals' new-look late-inning duo took care of everything after that to cap off a wild week.

"It was a little bit of a whirlwind, but it's really starting to slow down now," Doolittle said. "I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable. Winning games helps. Getting saves helps. Everything's starting to slow down a lot."