New-look Roark gets better, if not perfect, results

PHILADELPHIA - First things first, and the first thing everyone noticed about Tanner Roark when he took the mound Thursday night was the major alteration he made to his facial hair. Having sported a thick beard for several years now, the right-hander suddenly showed up with a mustache and sharp-angled sideburns, a look best described as a parody of a style popular in the 1970s.

What, exactly, was Roark's inspiration?

"I don't know," he said, before going on to explain. "I told (pitching coach Derek) Lilliquist I was going to do it for my next start. And he said: 'You won't.' I was going to line up my beard, but then I just decided to do this. I forget that I have it sometimes. When I look by a mirror, I see myself and it surprises me and makes me laugh. It's always a good thing to laugh."

Roark was able to laugh a bit following Thursday night's game. Not a hearty laugh, because he still was charged with the decision in the Nationals' 4-3 loss to the Phillies. But a little laugh, because he did enjoy much better results this time out than in his previous two starts.

After failing to complete the fifth inning in either of his last two outings, Roark still battled and grinded and got himself into all kinds of trouble at Citizens Bank Park. But he departed after six innings of two-run ball, and one of the runs was unearned. He took the loss, but he wasn't really responsible for the loss.

"Tanner pitched good enough to win, and that was good to see," manager Davey Martinez said. "He started off a little erratic, and then all of a sudden he started getting the ball down, which is good. He pitched well."

Seven of the Phillies' first 14 batters reached safely against Roark, and his pitch count soared to 62 after only three innings. But he limited the damage to those two runs, and then he proceeded to post three more scoreless innings on 44 pitches before departing in what at that point was a 2-1 game.

"I just told myself: 'Just hit my spots and locate,'" he said of his mid-game improvement. "Just stare at the glove and keep the ball down."

After those back-to-back disastrous starts, Roark went and watched video of himself from a couple seasons ago, hoping to find some mechanical issues that could be fixed. He did, and he tried to implement the fixes Thursday night. The changes involved modifications to his windup and the lowering of his hands before he reached back to throw, and he did feel like he was able to incorporate some of that during this game.

"Trying to get back to what I was in the past, because I was just trying to modify things in spring training," he said. "Make things simpler, to not move around as much. But I could feel myself over the rubber a lot of the times, a lot of the pitches tonight, and just getting everything going towards the plate, instead of fighting myself off. My arm was on time."

The end result wasn't as good as Roark and the Nationals would have liked, but it was better. And so he'll stick with the changes for his next start.

Including the changes to his facial hair?

"Yeah, absolutely," he said. "I feel like it's a pretty decent look."