"Grateful" Doolittle ready for emotional return to Nationals Park

Upon signing with the Reds days before pitchers and catchers were due to report for spring training, Sean Doolittle took a look at Cincinnati's 2021 schedule. He scanned the entire 162-game slate, but he specifically noted when one particular road series would be taking place.

May 25-27: at Washington.

Doolittle has tried not to think about it too much since, because there were far more important matters to address. On the heels of an injury-plagued and ineffective 2020 season with the Nationals, the 34-year-old left-hander needed to get himself back on track and attempt to earn a prominent role in the Reds' bullpen.

But now that he has settled in there, and now that the time has come, Doolittle has been able to anticipate what awaits him the next three nights when he returns to Nationals Park for the first time as a visitor.

"I had some really special relationships there," he said Sunday during a Zoom session with reporters from both Cincinnati and D.C. "I'm so grateful for my time there that I'm looking forward to coming back. I think there's going to be a wave of emotions, but I don't really know what to expect, to be honest."

What Doolittle almost certainly can expect tonight: A tribute video from the Nationals and a hearty welcome back roar from a crowd that will be calling out the first three letters of his name just as they did every time he trotted in from the bullpen from July 2017-October 2019.

"Seeing fans back at Nats Park, I think, is going to be really special as well," he said. "I've only just within the last couple of days really allowed myself to kind of think about it a little bit."

It will be all the more special because, as unfortunately was the case for so many ballplayers in 2020, Doolittle never got to experience a proper sendoff. His final appearance in a Nationals uniform came Sept. 10 in the ninth inning of a 7-6 loss to the Braves. He threw only three pitches, the last of which left him grabbing his right side in pain, before walking off the mound with what proved to be a season-ending oblique strain.

Doolittle returned to Nationals Park the following day to get the lowdown on his MRI and assumed he would still be showing up every day for the season's final few weeks for treatment and rehab. Instead, he was told COVID-19 protocols prevented him from even setting foot on the premises again while on the injured list.

"And that was it. That was it for me," he said. "I got to come back to the stadium the day after the season ended to pick up my stuff, and that was it. I didn't get to say goodbye, or thank you or have that ... not that I wanted a sendoff, but you can't even make the rounds in the clubhouse to say goodbye to all the boys, and to say thank you to the staff and everything like that. Yeah, that stung, and that really sucked for a little bit, for sure."

As important as he was to the club's success for three seasons, Doolittle knew he wasn't in the Nationals' plans for 2021. They needed more of a sure thing from a late-inning lefty, so they spent $10.5 million on Brad Hand, who already has experienced his share of highs and lows but overall sports a 3.63 ERA and seven saves in nine opportunities over 17 appearances.

Doolittle, who got $1.5 million guaranteed from the Reds, has seen improvement in his first year in Cincinnati. His average fastball velocity is back up to 93 mph (comparable to what it was in 2019. His strikeout rate (13.5 per nine innings) is at a career high for now. But he owns a 4.15 ERA and 1.442 WHIP in 20 appearances, and he is pitching mostly in the sixth and seventh innings, with only one ninth-inning save opportunity so far.

"Just the confidence I feel when I'm out there," he said when asked what the biggest difference is now versus last year. "Knowing that I might have some room for error with the fastball. I don't have to be absolutely perfect, because some of that velocity is back. The deception and the vertical break is back. So feeling like I have the stuff again to attack the zone, to attack hitters, to be able to miss bats, to get swings and misses. I didn't have that last year. And there were times in 2019 where I didn't have that, either. The work that we've been doing is paying off."

The Nationals will get a firsthand look at it sometime this week, whether in tonight's opener or later in the series. There's a decent chance Doolittle will be summoned to face Juan Soto at some point - "I'm not sure if it's worth losing sleep over how to get Juan Soto," he said. "He might be that good." - but when he enters from the left field bullpen for the first time at Nationals Park, he'll have to try to strike a balance between staying focused on the game situation and turning sentimental over the ovation he gets from the crowd.

"I feel like I developed a pretty special relationship with the fans in the time that I was there," he said. "I'm super grateful for their support. And I think that's one of the things I'm most looking forward to: Having fans back at Nats Park and maybe being able to see some of them again, some familiar faces, and say thank you in person. Because I really do appreciate the way they embraced me. And my wife. She used to drag me on Twitter and fans loved it. But they supported her as well. I'm very lucky the way they embraced me there. And I'm grateful for it."