Cole slated to start Saturday, but Giolito available this weekend

The Nationals plan to keep A.J. Cole and have him start Saturday night against the Rockies, but manager Dusty Baker said that plan remains tentative and Lucas Giolito will be available to rejoin the big league rotation this weekend if needed.

Pressed into emergency duties Monday when Stephen Strasburg had to be placed on the disabled list with a sore elbow, Cole impressed in only his second career big league start, going seven innings in a 4-3 loss to the Orioles. That performance appears to have earned him at least one more start.

"Yes," Baker said. "As of right now."

The Nationals did have Giolito pitch only one inning Tuesday night for Triple-A Syracuse in an effort to line him up as a possible starter in Washington either Saturday or Sunday, but that decision doesn't appear to have been made yet and may depend how the rest of the week plays out.

"You want him to be sharp enough to get some work, but you don't want to overwork him in case we need him," Baker said of Giolito. "Who knows? We don't think that we will need him right now, because of the way the young man pitched the other day. But just in case. Because we didn't know what we were going to get the other day. And we still don't really know what we're going to get come Saturday."

The Nationals could actually end up starting both Cole and Giolito this weekend against Colorado, if they decide to back off Reynaldo Lopez, who labored during Tuesday's 8-1 loss at Camden Yards.

Lopez has now thrown 127 2/3 innings this season between the minors and majors. He has never thrown more than 99 innings previously, and the Nationals generally try to restrict young pitchers to no more than a 25-30 percent increase year to year.

While the club will be monitoring Lopez's workload, it doesn't appear there will be any hard cap on his innings this season, with coaches, trainers and team officials making decisions based more on how the 22-year-old looks than anything.

"I mean, that subject really hasn't come up right now, yet," Baker said. "But the Latin American pitchers that I've played with and against these guys would pitch in the season and go down and pitch in winter ball, too. And so, do we put too much emphasis on workload, or are we not sometimes underworking them? I think that it varies per person.

"He doesn't look like he's tired to me. But I ask you a more important question: Who is to replace these guys? How many replacements do you have that you want to win the pennant? It doesn't work both ways.

"I was thinking the other night about San Francisco's pitchers. They won three pennants, but where is (Tim) Lincecum? Where's (Jake) Peavy? Where's (Matt) Cain? Is (Madison) Bumgarner the same? It's hard to have it both ways. You try to monitor, but at the same time, you're trying to win."