Nats hope little tweak gets Finnegan back on track

NEW YORK – Watching Kyle Finnegan labor through the top of the eighth Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, Davey Martinez felt like something didn’t look right with the Nats reliever.

The results certainly weren’t up to Finnegan’s standards: He retired only one of the five batters he faced, allowing three singles and a double, letting two Rockies runners score and trim a 6-3 lead down to 6-5. Ultimately, Martinez felt he had no choice but to summon Tanner Rainey to clean up the mess in the eighth and then also pitch the ninth for the first multi-inning save of his career.

What, though, was going on with Finnegan? After studying some video Sunday night and earlier today, the Nationals noticed his legs were spread wider than normal as he came set to throw each pitch. A seemingly minor discrepancy actually caused a significant drop in performance.

As Martinez and the club’s coaching and analytics staff realized, the spin rate on Finnegan’s fastball was down 10 percent Sunday from his season average. Suddenly, that upper-90s pitch was more hittable than it’s been all year.

“We talked a little bit. I noticed that his legs were a little bit wider on his setup,” Martinez said before tonight’s series opener against the Mets. “We talked to him about it. He was going to come in today, we were going to look at some numbers. His spin rate was down because of it, which I kind of figured. But we’re going to correct it.”

Finnegan was due to throw a light session off the bullpen mound this afternoon, working on correcting his setup to see if that fixes the issue. Because he pitched Saturday and Sunday against the Rockies, he probably won’t be available tonight. But the Nats hope to see better results the next time he does enter in a high-leverage spot.

* The after-the-fact reports on Stephen Strasburg’s rehab start Sunday were just as encouraging as the on-the-field results for the veteran right-hander.

Strasburg tossed five no-hit innings, retiring the first 14 batters he faced before issuing a walk and striking out six during a 58-pitch start for low Single-A Fredericksburg in his second competitive outing since last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery. Martinez said he received positive reports on Strasburg’s curveball and changeup and his efficiency in completing five innings on such a low pitch count.

The 33-year-old joined the Nationals on their charter train from Washington to New York following Sunday’s game and is slated to throw a bullpen session here at Citi Field in the next day or two. He remains on track to make another rehab start later this week for Triple-A Rochester.

Could that be Strasburg’s final tune-up before he comes off the injured list and makes his 2022 debut?

“I’m not going to put a timeframe on him,” Martinez said. “We haven’t done that yet, and I don’t want to do that to him now. We’re going to let him continue to progress and build up. We’ll have conversations with him now throughout, because I’m hoping he’ll be with us after he does throw in these games. And then we’ll talk about where he’s at mentally and physically and go from there.”

* Utility infielder Ehire Adrianza’s rehab assignment has shifted from Double-A Harrisburg to Rochester, where he led off and started at shortstop today.

Adrianza, who strained his left quadriceps during the final week of spring training, is eligible to come off the 60-day IL on June 6, so he’ll have the rest of this week to complete his rehab assignment, getting playing at shortstop, third base and probably left field as well.

“This is a spring training period for him,” Martinez said. “He’s going to go through this process. We’ll look at everything, deem when he’s ready. We want him to play multiple positions. I want to get him a couple games in the outfield, because he’s done that in the past. So we want to get him out there as well. And we’ll figure out when we feel he’s ready.”