Treinen shines, but rest of bullpen struggles in loss to Tigers

VIERA, Fla. - While much of the focus yesterday in Lakeland was on Bryce Harper's two homers and Joe Ross' early exit after taking a comebacker off his right heel, there were some other interesting developments during the Nationals' 7-6 loss to the Tigers.

Let's run through the highlights and lowlights of the afternoon ...

* Blake Treinen was outstanding during an unexpected, four-inning relief appearance. Treinen wasn't supposed to enter until the sixth, and he wasn't supposed to throw more than two frames, but Ross' injury in the bottom of the second forced Treinen to put in a whole lot of extra work than planned.

The right-hander made the most of it, churning out four scoreless innings, allowing two hits while striking out three with zero walks.

"Ooh, he was awesome," manager Dusty Baker said. "He was throwing that ball down, up and some good breaking balls. He's throwing with a lot of confidence, which is what you want to see."

Treinen has had quite an interesting spring. His first two appearances were starts, but the Nationals them decided to look at him exclusively as a reliever the rest of the way. Except he actually wound up throwing more innings in this one relief appearance than he did in either of his two previous starts.

The end result: Treinen has yet to allow a run in eight Grapefruit League innings, with only five batters reaching base (four hits and walk) and eight striking out.

* The rest of the Nationals bullpen wasn't nearly as promising yesterday. Matt Belisle and Burke Badenhop combined to give up all seven runs the Tigers scored, each right-hander pulled mid-inning by Baker.

The overall numbers for the two veterans, each trying to crack the opening day roster after signing minor league contracts in mid-February, aren't knocking anybody's socks off. Belisle had tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings prior to this, but his spring ERA now sits at 8.10. Badenhop, meanwhile, has made seven appearances and retired the side only once. He has put a whopping 16 men on base in only six innings of work.

With a whole bunch of relievers, many of them boasting considerable big league experience, fighting for one or two available spots on the opening day roster, crunch time is fast approaching.

I asked Baker if he's mentally starting to separate some of the relievers in the mix from the rest of the pack.

"They're separating themselves from the pack," the manager said. "We're giving them the ball and we say, 'Hey, here's the ball, and it's up to you.' We're not going to rescue them every time in spring training in adverse situations. Some are doing great, and some are struggling."

* Ross wasn't the only player injured in the game. Danny Espinosa took a Justin Verlander pitch off his right hand and appeared to be in some significant pain, dropping his bat and shaking his hand after getting plunked.

Espinosa walked down to first base with Baker and head athletic trainer Paul Lessard at his side, but he convinced them to leave him in the game.

"He's OK," Baker said. "It's pretty lucky when you get hit on the hand. I've seen a lot of bad things happen, especially when you get hit on the hand. So far, so good."