On Harper's slump, Hellickson's stuff and Madson's early usage

SAN DIEGO - Some more thoughts, observations and reactions after Tuesday night's 4-0 win over the Padres ...

* On a night in which all of the Nationals' runs were driven in by guys batting sixth (Matt Adams), seventh (Pedro Severino) or eighth (Jeremy Hellickson, Andrew Stevenson), Bryce Harper again took an oh-fer out of the leadoff spot.

With an 0-for-4, two-strikeout game, Harper extended his recent slump to 0-for-19, a stretch during which he has drawn only one walk. He did legitimately hit four balls hard Monday night and was denied a hit each time thanks to some impressive defensive play from San Diego, but in the larger picture Harper hasn't looked so great for a while.

After going 6-for-17 with four homers and a double in his first four games in the leadoff spot, Harper has done nothing since. Over a larger stretch of 20 games, he has batted .162 with a still-strong .345 on-base percentage but a middling .353 slugging percentage.

All four of Harper's at-bats Tuesday came against left-hander Clayton Richard. And with the Padres sending another lefty, Joey Lucchesi, to the mound in today's finale, manager Davey Martinez considered the possibility of giving his struggling star his first game off this season.

After speaking to Harper following the game, though, Martinez said he'll be right back in the lineup tonight.

"He's hit the ball incredibly hard over the last few days, he really has," Martinez said. "I talked to him after the game. He's good. He feels fine. So I told him: 'Tomorrow's a different day, so keep squaring balls up. They're not going to catch them all.'

"He knows that, and he knows how bad we need him. He's a huge part of our team and our offense. He gets it."

* Nobody in a Nationals uniform has seen Jeremy Hellickson pitch more the last two seasons than Howie Kendrick, who was the right-hander's teammate in Philadelphia to begin 2017 and is now his teammate again in 2018. Kendrick saw Hellickson struggle with the Phillies, but now he's seeing him excel with the Nats (2.28 ERA in five starts, including his flirtation with a perfect game Tuesday night).

Kendrick isn't surprised by what he's now seeing.

"I faced him for years," the veteran utilityman said. "Then to be able to play with him last year ... great teammate, really quiet, goes about his business. When I saw him in the spring when they signed him, I said: 'Hey man, it's good to have you back over here.' His whole career he's been that type of guy where he goes out, puts up innings, goes out and that changeup works really well for him. Tonight, he was throwing strikes with everything."

Kendrick can appreciate how tough it is to face a control artist like Hellickson after facing flamethrowers Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg the previous two days.

"I think it's the guys that throw softer who are the tougher guys," he said. "You try to do too much sometimes, and when you've got a guy like Hellickson who has a really good changeup, it makes his fastball seem that much harder. So even though he might not throw as hard as those other guys ... I mean, his pitches, his spin rate, things like that - especially with that changeup he has, I know firsthand from facing him - it makes his fastball look that much harder."

* Some may have wondered why Martinez chose to bring Ryan Madson in to replace Hellickson with two on and two out in the seventh instead of Brandon Kintzler, given the usual roles those two relievers hold. Was this a reflection of some diminished confidence in Madson (who hasn't pitched like his usual self lately) or was this a reflection of the significance of the game situation (even in the seventh inning)?

Martinez suggested it was the latter, though he also added that the fact there were two outs in the inning helped make Madson the choice over Kintzler (who did end up pitching the eighth).

"For me, it was just getting him in and getting that one out," the manager said. "That's what I wanted him to do. It's a high-leverage situation. Man on second/third, two outs, and I told him: 'Hey, get that one out.'"

Madson did just that, retiring Jose Pirela on a groundball to short and then retreating to the dugout after only two pitches.

"He was great, and after the game he said: 'Appreciate it, thank you,'" Martinez said. "I have all the confidence in the world in him. Tomorrow he might be asked to do something different. But tonight he was good."