Struggling Treinen seeks more strikes, faster pace

In their quest to fix what ails Blake Treinen right now, the Nationals coaching staff isn't looking as much at the reliever's mechanics or pitch selection as the slow pace in which all those pitches are being delivered to the plate.

"I'd like to see him pick up the pace," manager Dusty Baker said Tuesday night after Treinen struggled again during the Nats' 6-3 loss to the Diamondbacks. "He's very deliberate. It looks like he's thinking while he's throwing versus just throwing."

The numbers back up the manager's assessment. Last year, Treinen averaged 24.2 seconds between pitches. This year, he's averaging 27.4 seconds.

Is that particularly slow? Well, yes. Treinen's pace is slowest on the Nationals staff right now, a full five seconds slower than team leader Gio Gonzalez (whose up-tempo pace has helped him get off to a rousing start to the season). Among the 280 major league pitchers with at least 10 innings thrown this year, Treinen's pace rates the 21st slowest.

So why is Treinen taking so much time between pitches? Is it a sign of lost confidence?

"No, I don't think it's confidence," Baker said. "I think he's trying to think while he's pitching. That's what I think. I haven't talked to him about it. But you think before you pitch. And then when you pitch, you just let it go."

Treinen said pitching coach Mike Maddux mentioned pace once before in passing, but the reliever right now is focused on a more conventional problem to improve his performance: throwing strikes, especially early in the count.

"I think what's affected me for the most part this year has been my lack of ability to get ahead of hitters," he said. "I feel like my last few outings, I have. It's just a matter of putting guys away. Like tonight, I had few guys in situations where I should have put them away. Slider gets away, and I hit a guy in a foot."

Treinen tossed two innings of relief during Tuesday's loss. He faced 10 batters and let five of them successfully reach base. One run crossed the plate, leaving him with an 8.25 ERA for the season.

Nine walks in 12 innings haven't helped matters, but 20 hits allowed have only made it worse. His hits-allowed rate is more than twice as high as it was last year, when opponents 6.9 base hits per nine innings.

"He's throwing the ball hard, but they're hitting him," Baker said. "Especially some guys that shouldn't be hitting him."

Through this all, Treinen is trying to remember a simple fact: He has been a successful big league reliever before, only a year ago. Tempting as it might be to try to overthink things and start doing something out of his comfort zone, ultimately he'll be better off if he trusts what has worked before and simply executes better.

"Baseball is a game of peaks and valleys," he said. "You just have to stay even keel right now. Everything seems inflated. I fully have trust in myself to go out there. Things could go great for a month, and we won't even be having this discussion about the rough start. I'm not oblivious to it. But I'm not going to hang my hat on it. My identity's not wrapped up in it."