Nats starters being pushed to the brink with high pitch counts

The Nationals bullpen is a problem. That shouldn't be news to anybody at this point. But the deeper we get into the season, the more we see how the bullpen problem impacts other parts of the team's roster.

And atop that list is a Nats rotation that right now is being pushed nearly to the point of exhaustion.

With hardly any relief arms he trusts, Dusty Baker has been forced to ask for more than he wants from his starters. We saw it Sunday in Atlanta, when Stephen Strasburg was still on the mound with two on and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the tying run at the plate in the form of Dansby Swanson.

Strasburg's pitch count stood at 110 when Swanson stepped to the plate. It was a hot, muggy afternoon at SunTrust Park. The situation begged for a call to the bullpen.

Inside the dugout, Baker could be seen having a lengthy conversation with pitching coach Mike Maddux and bench coach Chris Speier, the trip presumably debating whether to stick with Strasburg or turn to the bullpen. They chose to stick with their starter.

Strasburg wound up throwing eight pitches to Swanson. The fifth pitch of the at-bat - a slider on the outside corner - could have been called strike three but instead was ruled ball three, and so that prolonged the encounter and ultimately allowed Swanson to drive a two-run double off the right field wall.

At that point, Baker had no choice but to go get his starter. Strasburg was at 118 pitches, one shy of his career high (which, by the way, he matched in a start two weeks ago against the Phillies).

Baker summoned Koda Glover, who appears to have become the club's de facto closer, and the young right-hander got out of the eighth-inning jam and then pitched a scoreless ninth to seal the 3-2 victory. So it ultimately worked.

But how concerned should the Nationals be about Strasburg's heavy workload? Or, for that matter, the entire rotation's heavy workload?

This was the fifth time this season a Nats starter has thrown at least 115 pitches. There have been only 26 total starts across the majors of at least 115 pitches. The Nationals are one of 30 teams in the sport, yet they have accounted for 19 percent of the sport's 115-pitch starts.

That's a lot.

Lower the bar a bit, and you get similar results. Eighty times this season, a major leaguer has thrown at least 110 pitches in a game. Eleven of those have come from Nationals starters, a full 14 percent.

It should be noted that the Nationals have (on paper) one of the best rotations in baseball. And their four regular starters are all veterans, not up-and-comers whose workloads have to be monitored with extreme care.

But you have to wonder how many of these extra-long starts would still have happened if Baker had a couple more relievers he trusted to get key outs.

And you have to hope all these extra pitches being thrown in April and May don't leave Nationals starters running on fumes come September or October.