With Doolittle held out, Kintzler can't close out ninth

Brandon Kintzler had plenty of ninth-inning experience with the Twins this season. Before he was traded to the Nationals on July 31, the right-hander had 28 saves in 32 attempts for Minnesota.

The Nats, of course, have used Kintzler primarily as their seventh-inning reliever since that trade, entrusting the eighth inning to Ryan Madson and the ninth to Sean Doolittle. It's a formula that has worked exceptionally well for two months and leaves this team fully confident in its bullpen heading into the postseason.

But on the few occasions in which Doolittle has been unavailable, manager Dusty Baker has turned to Kintzler as his substitute closer, just as he did Saturday night against the Pirates. The results in those outings have inspired far less confidence.

In three save situations with the Nationals, Kintzler has closed out only one victory. He gave up a pair of runs Aug. 24 in Houston for one blown save. He escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam Sunday in New York to hang on for a 3-2 victory. And then Saturday night he couldn't finish off the Pirates despite being one strike away, instead allowing four runs to suffer a 4-1 loss.

"I thought I was on a good run until today," Kintzler said. "I was feeling good about myself ... One of those days is going to happen. You just always try to avoid it at the end of the season. But I still feel good about myself. I think I had a good couple of weeks going into it."

In 27 total appearances with the Nationals, Kintzler now has a 3.46 ERA, with 10 runs, 25 hits and five walks allowed in 26 innings. He has been scored upon in only five of his 27 games, and has retired the side in 12 overall appearances, including the two prior to Saturday's loss.

The Nationals might have gone ahead and used Doolittle in this game but Baker decided not to push his closer after he pitched Thursday night and then warmed up twice Friday night when the Nats held a slim lead (they tacked on insurance runs, allowing Matt Grace to pitch the ninth in the end).

"He had pitched the night before," Baker said. "And last night counted in the game, because he got hot and we scored some more runs, and he sat back down. They then got some more and he got back up again. Then Gracie got out of it. To me, that counted as an appearance."