Back of bullpen secures victory of suspended game (updated)

With five innings on tap this afternoon to complete the game that only lasted four innings Wednesday night before a storm barreled through town, then a seven-inning game still to come later tonight as part of this pseudo-doubleheader, Nationals manager Davey Martinez had to concoct a pitching plan that would give his club the best chance to win both games.

And when the Nats added to the three-run lead they already held when Wednesday's game was suspended, the path should've been simple for Martinez, who hoped to now be able to avoid using his best late-inning relievers.

Things rarely go according to plan around here, though, so it wasn't terribly surprising when Martinez had no choice but to summon Daniel Hudson to bail him out of an eighth-inning jam created by Tanner Rainey, then Brad Hand to pitch the ninth to lock up a 5-3 victory over the Reds.

Up five runs entering the eighth, the Nationals appeared to be in a comfortable position to close this game out with ease. But another ragged relief appearance from Rainey, fresh off the COVID-19 injured list, created a domino effect that forced Hudson and Hand into the contest.

"We were up five. We wanted to get Rainey in there," Martinez said during his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "Honestly, I think he got in there and he was over-amped."

Rainey, who was activated this morning after spending eight days on the COVID-19 IL because he was deemed a close contact to Erick Fedde (who did test positive), didn't retire any of the three batters he faced. The right-hander's fastball velocity (96-98 mph) was fine, but his command was not. And the Reds capitalized with three straight singles off him.

"He came out and threw 98, and I wasn't overly excited about that," Martinez said. "I just wanted him to throw strike one and then go from there. I want him relaxed. We're up five runs. We just need outs from him."

Enter Hudson, who instead of getting the afternoon off now inherited a two-on, no-out mess. Hudson couldn't prevent those two runners from scoring (and raising Rainey's season ERA to 9.49) but he did escape the eighth without suffering any more damage, needing 23 pitches to finally record three outs with a two-run lead intact. His ERA now stands at an even 1.00 through 18 appearances.

"Just watching him every day go about his business, how he prepares himself, it just encourages me," said fellow right-hander Austin Voth, who pitched the fifth and sixth innings today. "I want to be more like him. He goes out there every day when he's asked and commands the strike zone. And he's had a lot of success this year.

After Hudson escaped the eighth, Hand then enjoyed another uneventful ninth, recording his eighth save and further distancing himself from his surprising string of rough outings earlier this month.

The Nationals and Reds will return at 7:05 p.m. for their originally scheduled series finale, now reduced to seven innings, with Stephen Strasburg on the mound.

Having received four scoreless innings from Joe Ross and three early runs from their lineup before the rain arrived Wednesday night, the Nationals had to decide how to approach today's resumption from a pitching perspective.

Martinez elected to start out with Voth, hoping the starter-turned-reliever could give him three quality innings and hand over the rest of the game to the back end of the bullpen.

Voth perhaps wasn't quite as efficient as Martinez would've hoped in the top of the fifth, needing 23 pitches to complete the inning after back-to-back, two-out singles by Eugenio Suárez and Jesse Winker. But the right-hander got out of the jam, thanks to a heads-up defensive play by Andrew Stevenson, who threw to Josh Harrison at second base to nail Winker trying to stretch his hit into a double as a trailing runner.

"I tried to treat it like I was coming out of the bullpen," Voth said of his approach to this unusual assignment. "Before the game, I warmed up with the relievers. I had a little bit of a break, went inside and showered and everything. And then went out there 20 minutes before gametime and stretched and got on the mound and started throwing. That's how I've been throwing recently, so I just want to stick to that schedule that I've been on."

A 13-pitch top of the sixth left Voth's total pitch count at 36, so Martinez did make the decision to turn to his bench at that point and try to tack on some runs. Which is precisely what happened, thanks to a two-strike triple from the youngest player on the roster.

Called up from Triple-A Rochester on Tuesday to assume Victor Robles' roster spot, Luis García made the most of his first opportunity to bat by turning on an inside 2-2 slider from Ryan Hendrix and sending it down the right field line. The 21-year-old coasted into third base with the first triple of his young career, and the Nats were now in business.

"It's very important," García said of his two-strike approach, via interpreter Melissa Strozza. "When you're down to two strikes, it's a war. And you've got to win it. You've got to stay energetic. You've got to stay positive. It's important to come across successfully."

Trea Turner's bloop single to right scored García. And when Turner later stole second to put himself in position to score on Josh Bell's single through an open hole in the Reds' infield shift, the Nationals had extended the lead to 5-0 and given Martinez enough cushion to avoid his top late-inning relievers.

Or so he hoped. Kyle Finnegan would pitch the seventh, running his pitch count up to 24 with a couple of prolonged at-bats but posting another zero nonetheless. Rainey, though, couldn't do his job in the eighth. And because of it, Martinez had to use his best two relievers to secure this win, leaving their availability for tonight's game in question.

"We've got to be awfully careful," Martinez said. "We've got no days off coming up. So we've got to be smart. The good news is, the second game is seven innings. So hopefully Stras can get us through five or six innings, and then we'll go from there."