Bullpen takes another hit with Rainey landing on IL

A Nationals bullpen that already was being stretched thin with the losses of several key late-inning relievers to injury has lost another key late-inning reliever: Tanner Rainey, who today was placed on the 10-day injured list with a stress reaction in his lower right leg.

It's a serious blow to a relief corps that has been trying to proceed without the services of Daniel Hudson, Kyle Finnegan and Will Harris and now enters a daunting closing stretch to the first half of the season against nothing but contenders with no truly proven arms beyond closer Brad Hand.

"A lot of this stuff is based on matchups," manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters when asked who he intends to use to set up Hand in the seventh and eighth innings. "And then it's also based on how guys are feeling and how they're throwing the ball. ... A lot of these other guys are going to have to get bumped up and pitch in high-leverage situations, and we'll see what they can do. But I really believe they can do it with the stuff they've got. They can go out there and fill the void for right now."

Martinez's bullpen, for the moment, includes Hand, plus Wander Suero, Austin Voth, Sam Clay, Kyle McGowin, Jefry Rodriguez, Andres Machado, Ryne Harper and Kyle Lobstein. The latter two were added to the active roster today, called up from Triple-A Rochester to contribute, with Justin Miller designated for assignment one day after he allowed back-to-back homers to the Mets.

Hand, by the way, may not be available tonight after pitching the last two days, including a five-out save Monday.

All of that makes the news of Rainey's injury more troubling for this team. The 28-year-old had looked dominant over the last several weeks, allowing one run and three hits over 9 1/3 innings. His most recent appearance, Sunday at Miami, included a scoreless bottom of the seventh on 19 pitches, but afterward he reported his right shin was bothering him.
An MRI revealed a stress reaction of the tibia, which is akin to a deep bone bruise but could turn into a stress fracture with repeated usage.

"It's his push-off leg, so we want to make sure we get that taken care of," Martinez said. "Because we don't want that to become some bigger issue. All of a sudden, he starts changing his mechanics, and it becomes something else. So we're going to take care of the issue, and hopefully we get him back as soon as possible. But it stinks, because he's been throwing the ball really well. He worked really hard to get back to where he was last year."

The temporary fix for the Nationals involved the promotions of Harper (who has allowed one run in eight innings across five separate stints in the majors this season) and Lobstein, a 31-year-old lefty with a 5.06 ERA in 34 career big league games (17 of them starts) but hasn't pitched in the majors since 2016 with the Pirates. Lobstein had a 1.69 ERA and 1.078 WHIP in 16 games for Rochester this season, so the Nats purchased his contract and brought him straight to D.C.

It remains to be seen if the Nationals can proceed for long with this relief corps as currently constructed, or if general manager Mike Rizzo feels the need to make an early move one month before the July 30 trade deadline. The club does expect to have Hudson and Finnegan back in the relatively near future, with Hudson (elbow inflammation) possibly throwing off a bullpen mound Wednesday and Finnegan (hamstring strain) now playing catch.