Once-dominant Thompson searching for way out of funk

Not that Mason Thompson truly expected to dominate to such a dramatic extent all season, but the Nationals reliever had every reason to believe he was capable of continuing to pitch at a high level all year long after a brilliant April.

In his first 10 appearances of the season, Thompson sported an 0.96 ERA, 0.589 WHIP and a staggering 17-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Then came a three-inning save at Citi Field on April 25, a milestone moment for the Nationals right-hander cause for concern for anyone worried about the health of the 25-year-old’s arm. And sure enough, in six appearances since, Thompson has been roughed up. He’s given up runs in five of those six outings. He’s allowed a whopping 15 batters to reach base in only 3 2/3 innings of work. He’s walked as many batters (four) as he’s struck out.

What happened?

“I’m just not getting the ball where I need to get it right now,” Thompson said Sunday after his latest rough appearance in the Nationals’ 8-2 loss to the Mets. “Just leaving too many pitches over the plate, and they’re taking advantage of it.”

Thompson may be leaving some pitches over the plate, but he’s not throwing nearly enough pitches in the vicinity of the plate right now. Only a few weeks ago, he sported a robust 71 percent strike rate. Since then, that rate has plummeted to 60 percent.

The worst of it may have come Sunday, when Thompson inherited a bases-loaded, two-out jam from Jake Irvin in the top of the fifth and proceeded to walk Brett Baty on four pitches, forcing home a run. He would face four batters total, retiring only one, throwing only nine of his 17 pitches for strikes. He allowed all three runners he inherited to score (all charged to Irvin) and let two more who reached against him score as well.

“A day like today, Irvin pitched so much better than the line showed,” he said. “I’ve got to come in and get him out of that spot.”

Given how much he was used in April, especially in that three-inning save situation, it’s natural to ask if Thompson’s struggles are a product of some kind of physical ailment. He insists that’s not the case.

“Physically, I feel fine,” he said. “Overall, I just feel a little bit out of whack right now. But we’ll get back to it. All it takes is one. I think getting one good outing out of the way, I’ll be able to get back in that groove and get on a roll again.”

Thompson is trying to get there with some improved mechanics. Manager Davey Martinez recently noticed Thompson wasn’t reaching back as far as he usually does before throwing a pitch. He was short-arming it to some extent, and that could lead to bad command.

“That’s something we’ve been working on the last week or so,” Thompson said. “It’s something that I feel like being short, it’s something that usually allows me to get in the zone and get the ball where I want it to. But right now, I’m just not able to get it where I want to.”

The Nationals desperately need Thompson to start doing that again. What looked like a deep and talented bullpen only a couple weeks ago now has a dwindling number of reliable arms Martinez will trust late in a close game.

“It’s a little concerning,” Martinez admitted. “Look, the walk was the one thing, a four-pitch walk. And then he came in and the hits were just ground balls, one broken-bat fly ball. He started throwing strikes, which was a lot better. We’ve got to start tweaking little things here and there that we’re seeing, but I think he’s going to be fine. His breaking ball was actually good, real good today. But we’ve got to get his fastball back in the zone.”