Dusty Baker: Fans "need to love" Jonathan Papelbon

He has surrendered four hits in three innings. He served up a titanic home run on Sunday. He twice has been handed a lead of at least two runs and wound up letting the tying or go-ahead run step to the plate.

None of which matters to Dusty Baker at the moment. The only stat the Nationals manager cares about relating to closer Jonathan Papelbon is that he's 3-for-3 in save opportunities.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like," Baker said.

True, though Papelbon's last two appearances haven't exactly been works of art. After retiring the side in Atlanta on opening day, he returned two nights later and allowed back-to-back singles to bring the winning run to the plate with one out before escaping with a 3-1 lead intact. Then, on Sunday, he took the mound with a three-run lead, served up a long home run to the Marlins' Christian Yelich and gave up a two-out single to Martin Prado before closing out a 4-2 victory.

The hits don't bother Baker, so long as Papelbon doesn't give opposing batters free bases. Which he hasn't so far; Papelbon has yet to issue a walk.

"The kiss of death is when you walk a guy and then all of a sudden a guy hits it out," Baker said. "I had Rod Beck save 50-something in a row, and he scared me to death about 30 of them. You just learn. Hey man, if he's not nervous, then I'm not nervous."

Now in his 11th season as a big league closer, Papelbon does have to rely more on guile than pure stuff. His average fastball velocity so far is 90 mph, down from 91.4 mph last season and down from 94.8 mph five seasons ago.

That said, the 35-year-old still is proving he can induce swings and misses from opposing hitters. He has four strikeouts in his three innings of work, with Giancarlo Stanton and Freddie Freeman among his early victims.

Ultimately, Baker believes, track record and nerves of steel are more important in the ninth inning than anything else.

"I hear people talking about Papelbon. Man, they need to love Papelbon, because he has 400-something saves," Baker said, inflating his closer's actual total of 352 just a bit. "That's a lot of saves. That's a lot of times being in a pressurized situation, where you're trying to take that last out away from somebody."