Baker, Nats left to hope for the best with the bullpen they've got

PHILADELPHIA - Most managers, especially those of good teams, have a short list of regular candidates to summon from the bullpen for the final innings of a close game. A couple of setup men, a lefty specialist, a closer.

Dusty Baker has a good team, the best team in the majors by record through the season's first five weeks. He does not, however, have the aforementioned short list of reliable relievers to call upon with his team leading by a few runs late. At least not at the moment.

Shawn Kelley, Koda Glover and Sammy Solís are all on the disabled list. Blake Treinen and Joe Blanton have ERAs north of 9.00.

What Baker does have at his disposal right now is a hodgepodge of veterans (Matt Albers, Oliver Pérez), promising kids (Enny Romero) and recent call-ups from Triple-A (Jacob Turner, Matt Grace). That's not an ideal pool of candidates from which to choose.

"It's been difficult," Baker said. "It's been difficult since the beginning."

The Nationals have managed to get by with this unusual arrangement thanks to the sport's most productive lineup and one of its best rotations. But this is dangerous living, and there are going to be days when it doesn't work ... as was the case this afternoon during a 6-5 10-inning to the Phillies.

The Nationals led 5-2 after six. Tanner Roark was "outstanding" according to his manager in failing to allow an earned run while throwing 100 pitches. Jayson Werth had his best game of the young season at the plate, going 4-for-5 with two homers, 11 total bases and eliciting boos from the hostile crowd at Citizens Bank Park that once loved him every opportunity it got.

But when it came time to cobble together the final nine outs of the game, Baker went with what he had and watched as it fell apart.

Grace, in only his second appearance of the season, retired only four of the eight batters he faced, leaving Baker to summon Albers to try to pitch out of a two-on, two-out jam in the bottom of the eighth. Albers, the 12-year journeyman who had not surrendered a run in 23 total innings between spring training and the regular season, tried to sneak a first-pitch slider past Aaron Altherr.

That pitch, though, hung over the plate, and Altherr mashed it to left-center for the three-run homer that tied this game and finally left a blemish on Albers' surprisingly spotless 2017 resume.

"I knew it was going to happen eventually, but it's tough for that spot," the 34-year-old right-hander said. "That's kind of life as a reliever. I've been through it. You make one pitch up in the zone, leave it up, and that can be the difference. I execute that pitch down and away, he probably pops it up or rolls it over, and we're out of it and win the game."

Albers retook the mound for the bottom of the ninth and got into a quick jam when he walked the leadoff batter and then couldn't handle a sacrifice bunt attempt. But Romero entered from the bullpen and somehow escaped a bases-loaded jam to send this game into extra innings.

Their lineup unable to push across any more runs, the Nationals had to ask another reliever to post a zero in order to have another crack at the plate. That reliever was Treinen, who hasn't produced a 1-2-3 inning of relief since his opening day save and who has since been demoted to the point Baker is trying everything in his power to avoid using him (as he is also doing with Blanton) in situations of consequence.

Though he didn't surrender one hard-hit ball in the inning, Treinen did surrender the game-winning run. Odúbel Herrera reached down and poked a 97 mph sinker that was below the strike zone down the third base line for a leadoff double. After falling behind 3-0 to Altherr, Treinen intentionally walked the Phillies outfielder. Pitcher Vince Velasquez then chopped a bunt high into the air, with neither Treinen nor Anthony Rendon able to make a play on it.

The bases now loaded, Treinen did manage to strike out Andrés Blanco, but Freddy Galvis managed to send a fly ball deep enough to center field to bring home the winning run without a throw.

It raised Treinen's ERA to 9.22. He has now put 36 batters on base in 13 2/3 innings.

"The life of a reliever is you've got to forget about yesterday," Baker said. "And so we really have no choice. We know he's better than that."

Treinen tries to avoid seeing the big picture, as well, and focus only on whatever task is next.

"That's the beautiful thing about baseball and being a relief pitcher: You get to go out every day and you can flush whatever happened the day before," he said. "I've been getting really good at flushing stuff lately. In a moment like this, it sucks because you don't want to lose a game that your team played really well. Tanner pitched a heck of a game, our offense showed up, Jayson had an unbelievable game at the plate. It sucks being the last one on the mound when the L is on your name. You always want guys to win that deserved it. Yeah, it's frustrating right now, but I'll get over it. And tomorrow's a new day."

The Nationals will open a stretch of four games with the Orioles on Monday, perhaps their toughest test of the season to date. They will once again rely on their powerful lineup and talented rotation to lead the way. But they'll continue to need to piecemeal their bullpen, and it's not like there's significant help right around the corner.

Kelley (lower back strain) won't be eligible to come off the DL until Friday. Solís (elbow inflammation) hasn't begun throwing off a mound yet. Glover (hip impingement) is eligible to return, but Baker said the young right-hander won't be back for this series, still needing to throw two bullpen sessions.

This is the Nationals' relief corps right now.

"What's our record?" Werth asked. Informed it's 21-10, the veteran outfielder continued: "So we've lost 10 games. It's not like we're not having success. It's just one game. I mean, you're not going to win them all, you're not going to close them all. I think we're playing pretty good."