Kintzler struggles again, Severino surprises at the plate

After a disastrous appearance Thursday that was capped by a grand slam, Brandon Kintzler vowed to get back to throwing his bread-and-butter pitch (sinker) instead of the off-speed pitch (slider) he inexplicably relied too much on that afternoon.

The good news about Kintzler's return to the mound Saturday: He threw only one slider among the 15 pitches he threw during the top of the seventh. The bad news: He still gave up two runs to the Mets, turning the Nationals' 2-1 lead into a 3-2 deficit and ultimately taking the loss.

What happened this time?

"I'm not consistently hitting my arm slot to have my sinker," Kintzler said. "I don't know if the week off did that for me, caused me to lose it a little bit. Right now, it's just a little all over the place."

Kintzler, who pitched opening day in Cincinnati but then did not appear in another game until Thursday's home opener, might have escaped this latest jam had second baseman Howie Kendrick been able to cleanly field Todd Frazier's grounder up the middle with one out and runners on the corners. Kendrick's bobble prevented him from trying to turn a double play, and that allowed the go-ahead run to score.

It was a frustrating way for the Nationals to lose the game, and suddenly they may have reason to worry about the first man up in their previously dominant, late-inning bullpen trio. Not that manager Davey Martinez is buying into any talk of concern.

"I've got all the faith in the world in Kintzler," Martinez said. "He made some pretty good pitches. ... He's going to be fine. We're going to run him out there. He's going to pitch. He's going to pitch in high-leverage situations, cause he's good."

In his first 26 appearances with the Nationals last summer and fall, Kintzler gave up a total of six runs. He's now given that many up in his last two appearances alone.

"It's very humbling," he said. "This game's humbling. You can never get too high or too low. For me, right now, obviously, the last two outings have been a nightmare for me. And hopefully in September, I'll laugh about it."

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Nationals have to be thrilled with the performances they've received from Pedro Severino since his promotion from Triple-A Syracuse last week. Summoned only after Matt Wieters went on the 10-day disabled list with a mild oblique strain, Severino has started three games behind the plate and showed off some surprising offensive skills.

Severino notched a pair of two-out hits Saturday with a runner in scoring position, driving in one of those runs. He also stole second base, showing off his uncharacteristic running ability for a catcher. He has now received 11 plate appearances and reached base in eight of them. And despite his reputation as a weak-hitting catcher - his career offensive slash line in the minors is .244/.294/.339 - the 24-year-old is showing he can hit at this level.

In 39 career big league games, Severino's offensive slash line is a robust .279/.388/.426.

"We've told Severino many times: You're going to be a big league catcher," Martinez said. "And I like what I see. He hustles. He's a very athletic catcher; as you can tell we let him steal a base today. He's starting to get the hang of calling a game, which I really like a lot. I like what I see so far."