Fedde, back of bullpen shut out Dodgers for 1-0 win (updated)

Meaningful late-inning opportunities for Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey have been so sparse this season that Davey Martinez has regularly been compelled to use his best relievers in blowouts just to make sure they don’t get rusty.

The Nationals have had a save opportunity in only two games this month (each of them blown saves by Rainey, for what it’s worth). So when the situation finally presented itself again early this evening on South Capitol Street, it was more than appropriate to feel some pangs of anxiety for the home ballclub.

Turns out there was nothing to be worried about, because Finnegan and Rainey delivered in the eighth and ninth innings to close out a tense, much-needed, 1-0 victory over the Dodgers to avoid a series sweep.

"Those are the moments you want to be pitching in, and those are the moments you're hoping for," Finnegan said. "To get one of those tonight and do our job at the back end of the bullpen and come away with the win, it was awesome."

A matinee finale that saw Erick Fedde toss six scoreless innings and the Nationals push across one run in the bottom of the sixth, ultimately came down to the two relievers Martinez has ready to pitch the final two innings every night but hardly ever had been able to use as desired through the season’s first 45 games.

This time, it all worked out exactly as planned. Finnegan got through the eighth, striking out Mookie Betts and Edwin Ríos around a popup off Justin Turner’s bat, stranding former teammate Trea Turner in scoring position.

"I've been trying to attack everybody the same, regardless of the name on the jersey," Finnegan said. "I've had some big opportunities, some big spots here lately. And I've been feeling good and been able to find some success. But for me, it's just doing what I'm good at and not really thinking about who's in the box."

Rainey closed it out in the ninth, though not without some drama. With two on and one out, he needed to get Cody Bellinger to fly out to center, then Will Smith to fly out to the warning track in right on a 3-2 fastball to secure his fourth save of the season, first since April 19.

"The heater felt good, and we were kind of going back with that," Rainey said of the showdown with Smith for the final out. "I think we ended up throwing six or seven in a row there, which is un-typical for me. But it ended up working out, and I'll take that all day."

"It's great when you can hand the ball over and then watch three more zeros go up on the board and hold the lead," Fedde said. "We haven't had a lot of opportunities to do that this year. Seeing them do that is something we want to see a lot more of." 

It was as tight a win as they get, but it featured plenty of positive pitching developments for the Nationals.

Though he was effective throughout, Fedde was anything but efficient early on. The right-hander needed 75 pitches just to complete his first four innings, despite the zeros he kept posting along the way. He had no clean innings, but he never allowed more than one Dodgers batter to reach base and stranded a couple of them in scoring position to keep them off the scoreboard.

After struggling to get a feel for more than one of his pitches at a time in recent outings, Fedde seemed to be in command of all three of them today, effectively using his sinker, cutter and curveball to get outs.

Most impressively in this outing, Fedde got better the further he went. He recorded his final six outs on a scant 15 pitches, helped in part by Hanser Alberto running into an out at third base following a leadoff double in the fifth. Still, Fedde deserves plenty of credit: Facing the top of the Dodgers order for the third time, he retired Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman and Justin Turner in succession to keep the game scoreless.

"I really executed some pitches, especially the one to Trea to get the double play (in the fifth)," he said. "I made them use their aggression to my advantage. If anything, I executed my pitches in quality parts of the zone for quick outs."

His pitch count at 90, Fedde might have been able to return to the mound for the seventh. Martinez, though, decided not to press his luck and turned to his bullpen after that, hoping that group could close things out and give the starter a much-deserved win.

Regardless of the outcome, it’s hard to ignore the big picture for Fedde, which looks as promising as it has in a long time. Nine starts in, he owns a 3.55 ERA, easily best in the Nationals rotation.

"We talked earlier about how much he's maturing, and how much his routine has changed," Martinez said of the 29-year-old. "And you see the results from that. He's been working with (pitching coach Jim Hickey) diligently in his bullpens, working on the shape of his pitches, his changeup, his cutter. And he goes out there and he competes. And I think now he's got a little bit of confidence behind him, which is really nice."

Fedde's teammates didn’t offer him any offensive support while he was actually in the game, but they did finally slap together one run in the bottom of the sixth, even if it required maximum effort to pull it off. When Victor Robles drew a leadoff walk against Dodgers lefty Julio Urías, the Nats went into manufacture mode in an attempt to get him home.

Alcides Escobar twice fouled off sacrifice bunt attempts, then was so successful on his third try he actually beat out the slow roller down the line for a single. César Hernández also failed to get his first bunt attempt down, then made up for it by driving an 0-2 pitch from Urías through the left side of the infield for an RBI single and a 1-0 lead.

There were multiple opportunities to add to that lead, but the Nationals simply couldn’t execute to get anybody else home. With two on and nobody out in the sixth, Lane Thomas fouled out, Juan Soto struck out and Escobar was thrown out trying to score from second on Nelson Cruz’s grounder to the hole at short, with Turner bobbling the ball and ultimately benefiting from it because he could throw to the plate to get Escobar into a rundown.

"It's two outs; he bobbled the ball," Martinez said. "I was hoping he would throw it (to first), safe and we score another run. I thought it was a heads-up play."

Then with runners on second and third and nobody out in the seventh, Riley Adams struck out on three pitches, Robles struck out on four pitches and Yadiel Hernandez (pinch-hitting for Escobar) grounded out on one pitch, leaving the fate of this game in the hands of a group that hasn't been in this situation nearly as much as hoped: the back end of the bullpen.

At last, that situation paid off for the Nationals.

"In the limited amount of times that we've had that, they've come out and done well," Martinez said. "I think we had one hiccup (May 8) in Anaheim. Other than that, they've come into games and they've done really well."