One outing at a time, Treinen trending in the right direction

In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of relievers, where short memories are as essential as putaway pitches, a couple of good outings are something positive to build on.

For right-hander Blake Treinen, who began the season as the Nationals closer and then found himself pitching in low-leverage situations when he couldn't handle the pressures of the ninth inning, back-to-back scoreless outings this week brought added cause for hope.

"The last couple of outings, ... I feel, stuff-wise, like it's coming out and having the action I'm used to having the last couple of years," he said. "Velocity is a little different, which is a nice thing to see. Typically, I don't get that kind of action on fastball at that velocity. That's always nice to see. Outside of results, I feel like things have gone well for me this month."

Treinen relieved Oliver Pérez after the eighth inning against the Orioles on Thursday and retired all three batters he faced, striking out one. A night later, he followed Tanner Roark and worked a clean seventh inning, fanning one. After not putting back-to-back scoreless appearances together in his first 18 outings of the season, Treinen has two pair of scoreless appearances in the last six times he's been called out of the 'pen.

Better, his go-to sinker, which didn't get him many ground balls early in the season, was touching 98 mph, and his four-seamer topped out at 99 mph with some additional giddy-up he's rarely seen. The uptick in velocity is nice, but Treinen's just glad he's got a feel for his pitches again and that they're doing what he wants them to.

After working to a 9.00 ERA in the season's first month, and a 5.11 ERA in May, his mark in three June outings has been 2.25. It's a small sample size, but a step in the right direction toward regaining his manager's confidence.

"He's throwing strikes and he's being more aggressive in the strike zone," manager Dusty Baker said. "We certainly need Blake, big-time. We need Blake to return to form. But it starts one day at a time. You can't make up two months in a day. He's had two good outings and you hope he gets to three, then four, and then he gets back to form."

In order to regain Baker's trust, Treinen said he had to trust the process and not try to be something he's not. This wasn't a time for radical changes, no matter how demoralizing the rough patches in the season's first two months were.

"You try to search for things to be better, but you just got to trust your process," he said. "The way the season has been up and down results-wise, I'm not going to change my approach to the game. The process has to be the same. Baseball's going to happen. My routine and my approach to what made me successful last year should not (change). It's not like I had a good one month and the rest was average. I was able to have some sustained success based on advice I got from Mad Dog (pitching coach Mike Maddux) or some guys we've got in the bullpen that I applied to my game. Stick with what worked for me."

Last season, Treinen morphed into one of most reliable members of the bullpen, assuming any number of roles and pitching at different times in games - but often when the game was on the line. He posted a career-best 2.28 ERA in a career-high 73 games, holding foes to a .224 batting average.

Some in the organization wondered whether Treinen was too nice a guy to work in the ninth inning, but he struck out 11 in six scoreless outings in spring training and won the closer derby. Losing that role was one thing; finding himself in mop-up roles or pitching in lopsided games was another.

So he did what a good relief pitcher does: compartmentalized each bad outing, picked it apart for a few hours, then let it go. Tomorrow's a new day and what happened yesterday or in his last outing didn't affect his future.

One inning at a time, he's begun to turn things around. His ERA, which spiked at 10.00 on April 26, is down to 6.15 and trending in the right direction.

"Just continue to keep my head down and chip away because it's a long season," he said. "Just try to get back to a consistent form where this team can use me in roles where they're used to using me. That's where I can help this team. The biggest thing that's been frustrating throughout this year is not being reliable."

That's where having a short memory comes in handy. He can still play the chess match that is part of every confrontation against a hitter. But he won't stew too long when something doesn't go right.

"I don't think it's very hard. I think it's something you learn over time," he said. "You have an outing that frustrating and you give yourself time to be human, be frustrated. Get over it the next day and realize why you're here: because you're good enough to be here. If you start weighing your hat on the ups and downs of a season, it'll really eat at you. You move on the next day. There's always something else to worry about."

Treinen has found more than comfort in his routine. He discovered a starting point to repair what was in danger of becoming a lost campaign.

"You're always your worst critic," he said. "There has been some times in between things that I've been able to do some things I'm used to doing."