ST. LOUIS – The last thing any team wants is to face a doubleheader on the second day coming out of the All-Star break. But if ever there was a time to do that, and a pitching staff unintentionally designed to handle it, this is it.
After Friday night’s second-half opener against the Cardinals was suspended with two outs in the bottom of the third, St. Louis leading 1-0, the Nationals will be forced to play 15-plus innings today at Busch Stadium. They’ll pick up Friday night’s game from the point it was suspended – runner on first, 3-2 count on Paul Goldschmidt – at 2:15 p.m. Eastern, then play the originally scheduled game at 7:15 p.m.
Trevor Williams, who recorded the first eight outs for the Nats, will have to be replaced on the mound. Davey Martinez, though, has a good number of viable options. Everybody in the bullpen is fresh coming out of the All-Star break, and that unit already has an extra pitcher on staff in Paolo Espino, who is replacing starter Patrick Corbin this weekend while the latter is on paternity leave.
Espino is one of three long relievers available to Martinez if needed, along with Cory Abbott and Joan Adon. Those three are supplemented by six other healthy, fresh relievers in Kyle Finnegan, Hunter Harvey, Mason Thompson, Jordan Weems, Jose A. Ferrer and Amos Willingham.
Jake Irvin will start the nightcap as originally planned. Even if the rookie only goes five innings, the Nationals still should be in decent shape to cover the rest of the game.
“Those guys are all stretched out,” Martinez said. “We should be in really good shape.”
Both teams are allowed to add a 27th man for the second game, the same as they would for a traditional doubleheader. That spot would usually go to a pitcher, but the Nats could decide to call up an extra position player in case Jeimer Candelario is unable to play.
Candelario suffered a bone bruise in his right thumb when he was struck by a batted ball during an afternoon defensive drill Friday. The 29-year-old third baseman tried to play through it, but his first-inning at-bat included some warning signs he wasn’t feeling right.
Candelario took the first five pitches he saw from Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas and actually squared around to bunt on a 2-1 offering, hoping to avoid the impact of a full swing and perhaps get a cheap hit because St. Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado was shifted around toward the shortstop position.
Alas, Mikolas’ 2-1 changeup was so far outside, Candelario had no choice but to pull back and let it go. He took another strike after that to bring the count full, then finally began swinging, fouling off three straight pitches. He appeared to wince after each of them, shaking his right hand after one in particular.
By the time Mikolas threw him a slow curveball on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Candelario could only put forth a half-hearted swing. He immediately jogged back toward the dugout in an unusual manner. When the Nationals took the field for the bottom of the first, Ildemaro Vargas had taken his place at third base.
“I’m a little bit concerned, because of the way he came off the field,” Martinez said. “But he said he’s feeling a lot better now. So hopefully tomorrow he wakes up … and we’ll see how he feels for the second game.”
Candelario isn’t allowed to return for the rest of the suspended game, but he was hoping he’d feel well enough to start the nightcap.
“It was really painful. Sharp pain,” Candelario said afterward. “But we put in a lot of work. Hopefully we can be there tomorrow. Please, god. Because I feel really good to get it going in this second half.”
If he’s not able to play, the Nationals could either go with Vargas again at third, or they could conceivably promote infielder Jake Alu from Triple-A Rochester and give him a look as the 27th man for the game.