New names, same result from bullpen in disastrous eighth

NEW YORK - The sight of Wilmer Difo rounding the bases, slapping his hands together in excitement, the crowd of 35,156 at Citi Field booing after the Nationals' backup shortstop gave his team a two-run lead with an upper-deck home run in the top of the eighth, should have brought joy to anyone rooting for the visitors in this afternoon's contest with the Mets.

And yet nobody would fault anybody for reacting to Difo's surprise blast with feelings of nausea. Why? Because it merely meant the Nationals bullpen would now need to get through the bottom of the eighth unscathed in order to get the ball to Sean Doolittle for the ninth.

And if you've followed the first seven games of the 2019 season even casually, you know how this usually goes.

It happened again today. The names - Justin Miller and Tony Sipp - were new. The result was the same as it was during last week's harrowing homestand in D.C.

Seven batters faced. Four hits allowed. Two of those homers. Plus a double, a hit batter and an RBI single that proved to be the death blow in the Mets' 6-5 victory over a Nationals club that simply cannot figure out how to record the oh-so-elusive 22nd, 23rd and 24th outs of a baseball game.

"It's high-leverage situations," said manager Davey Martinez, whose staff has now allowed 17 runs in the eighth, only once in seven attempts posting a zero. "We've got to figure out that eighth inning. Guys have got to come in and throw strikes and get hitters out. That's the bottom line. You put them in positions where you think they're going to succeed, and they've got to come in and do the job."

Martinez thought he had a lockdown eighth inning reliever when the season began only nine days ago. Trevor Rosenthal was the club's first free agent signing of the winter, given $7 million guaranteed because he was supposed to join Doolittle and give this team a potent one-two punch at the back end of the bullpen.

But Rosenthal, returning after a 19-month recovery from Tommy John surgery, has yet to retire any of the seven batters he has faced. So he has been buried in the bullpen, left to sit back and watch unless a low-leverage spot presents itself for him to attempt to right his sinking ship.

So Martinez has been left to piecemeal it together in recent days with whatever competent arms he has left. He might have considered Kyle Barraclough today, but the former Marlins closer (who has allowed all five baserunners he has inherited) was first needed to pitch a scoreless seventh. Wander Suero hasn't proven himself ready for setup work. Matt Grace had already pitched in five of the team's first six games.

Miller had been the only member of the group outside of Doolittle to pitch effectively to date, so he got the call even though he had thrown 25 pitches on Wednesday and another 16 pitches on Thursday.

"We had a day off (Friday)," Martinez said. "He was good to go."

Miller didn't use fatigue as an excuse for his performance, but the results were striking: Pete Alonso crushed his third pitch to center field for a leadoff homer, then Robinson Canó belted his ninth pitch over the bullpens in right-center for the game-tying homer.

"It was just one of those days," Miller said. "Just didn't have my best stuff."

Miller would give up another single but then erased the runner with a double-play grounder, at which point Martinez summoned Sipp for the fifth time in seven games to face the left-handed Michael Conforto. Conforto promptly doubled, then Sipp plunked Jeff McNeil before surrendering an RBI single to Keon Broxton to bring home the Mets' decisive run.

"Didn't have my best stuff," the veteran lefty said. "Didn't put guys away when I was ahead."

Fans and media alike can nitpick a manager's bullpen usage, but what other options did Martinez have at this point? Bring in Doolittle for the eighth? OK, but somebody would still have to pitch the ninth. And it's still only April 6, with five consecutive gamedays ahead and nearly six months of baseball still to play. You can't burn out your closer now.

Neither is there a quick fix coming from either inside the system or outside. The Nationals could promote right-hander Austen Williams, who had a 0.00 ERA in spring training, but he has no big league experience in high-leverage spots. Ownership could give general manager Mike Rizzo approval to sign Craig Kimbrel and exceed the luxury tax for the third straight year, but Kimbrel probably needs a month to get game-ready after remaining unemployed all winter and spring.

Besides, that would only give the Nationals two viable late-inning relievers. Still not nearly enough to make it through an entire major league season.

"It's tough, but I trust these guys," Martinez said. "The other day, they came in and they did the job. Today, they didn't. We've got to keep grinding. I've got to keep putting these guys in these situations. They're going to have big moments, and they're going to get big outs."

In the meantime, this seven-man bullpen as currently constructed will attempt to do what feels like the impossible in this moment: Stay upbeat and figure things out themselves.

Truth be told, it's all they can do right now.

"Psychologically, we keep the game the game," Sipp said. "We can't carry over the same thing we did in the previous game to the next. We are a family out there. We all pull for each other. We are around each other a lot of times more than our own family. So, yeah, it is a family. It's frustrating. Just got to pull together and figure it out."