Lefty matchup backfires late in Friday's loss

NEW YORK - Davey Martinez was talking Friday afternoon about one benefit of his ever-changing bullpen: the ability to bring in one or two left-handers to matchup for one or two batters late in a game.

That wasn't the case only a few weeks ago, when Sammy Solís was the only lefty used in that kind of situation (despite his reverse splits that showed he was more effective against right-handed batters) and Matt Grace was forced into a long-relief role.

Now, since Solís was demoted to Triple-A Syracuse and replaced by Tim Collins, and since Grace was moved into more of a late-inning role than a long-relief role, Martinez feels he has two strong southpaw options when he wants to match up with a lefty hitter.

"It's been really good," the manager said. "When you have two lefties like Collins and Grace, you can use one earlier than you anticipate just having one. And I can do different things with Gracie, too. I like Gracie facing both lefty and right. But if I can use him and keep his bullets down, if I can use him for just one or two hitters, he could be available for two or three days in a row."martinez

That was especially evident earlier this week, when Martinez called upon both Collins and Grace to face Justin Bour in key spots against the Phillies. Each lefty got the job done, with Grace pitching for the third straight day and helping keep the Nationals facing a one-run deficit to make Ryan Zimmerman's eventual walk-off homer possible.

But then came Friday night's game against the Mets, in which Martinez's best-laid plans fell apart.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth and trying to keep the game within striking distance, Martinez summoned Collins to face Jay Bruce with two outs and a runner on first. That runner, Jeff McNeil, wound up stealing second, but Collins' entire focus in the moment was on retiring Bruce.

Which he couldn't do. Collins left a 1-1 fastball up in the zone, and Bruce (who had just returned from a long stint on the disabled list) launched it to right-center field for the two-run homer that put this game out of reach.

"It was the perfect matchup," Martinez said. "I really thought he was going to use his curveball, but he didn't. He threw him a fastball. And I know Jay Bruce for a long time, he's a good fastball hitter."