Sammy Solis' escape act earns praise from Dusty Baker

VIERA, Fla. - Sammy Solis couldn't get his fastball down, and in the blink of an eye, he'd loaded the bases. A 6-4 eighth-inning Nationals lead looked precarious, but you'd never know it by what happened next on Saturday afternoon at Space Coast Stadium.

The late innings of Grapefruit League games are renowned for strange occurrences. Big leads disappear quicker than pizza at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. Veteran pitchers are treated rudely by hitters with dubious pedigrees. Games that are zooming along suddenly slow to a snail's pace as pitchers excruciatingly try to maneuver just a few more outs.

No one would have blamed Nationals manager Dusty Baker for getting someone up in the bullpen or even hooking Solis quickly to try and quiet a crowd that was growing restless. Instead, he gave the left-hander some latitude and watched the reliever squirm out of a jam in a manner that would have made Houdini proud.

"In spring training, what's more important: to win the game or for the kid to figure out how to get out of it?" Baker said after the Nationals' 8-4 victory over the Tigers. "Because I won't be able to bail him or come rescue him all the time. I want to see what you can do because I won't be able to rescue you sometime during the season. You climb up in that tree, I got to let you get yourself down sometimes. I can't always call the fire department or climb up the ladder. You got up there, let's see if you can get out. ... A lesson like that is valuable when you're trying to help make a pitcher and mold a pitcher to maturity."

Solis found himself caught in a self-made disaster-in-waiting upon relieving Taylor Hill in the eighth. He sandwiched walks to Mike Gerber and Casey McGehee around a bloop single by Steven Moya to load 'em up. But instead of craning his neck to see who was warming up, the 27-year-old got the opportunity to extricate himself from danger and made good on it.

"I wasn't looking over my shoulder," Solis said. "I wasn't looking down to the 'pen or into the dugout wondering if I'm going to get a meeting or get pulled. It was really just me and the hitter, which I really appreciated. It just takes a little load off your back. Obviously, that's what spring training's for. In the season, it would be a little different. But to be able to relax out there in a tough situation, knowing that it's up to me, that's definitely nice."

Truth be told, a 3-2 changeup to McGehee that was called a ball - and probably wasn't - told Baker a lot about Solis' moxie.

"At least he tried to entice the guy into a double play," Baker said. "He's still learning how to pitch, to pitch to what you need. Sometimes you need a strikeout, sometimes it's a fly ball with two outs, sometimes you need a double play. What I was impressed with is he tried to entice the guy into a double play. The pitch selection that you throw up there is what tells me what your intentions are. And then after that, I was impressed with him getting out of trouble. You learn he has the stuff."

Solis got Jason Krizan and Dominic Ficociello on swinging strikes, then finally got the grounder he wanted off the bat of Austin Green, a bouncer to short. Inning over, crisis averted. Once Solis started finding the bottom of the strike zone, things settled down. Two outings into spring training, his 0.00 ERA still sparkles.

"Not quite how I wrote it up," he laughed afterward. "I was glad they let me work through it. They gave me a little time to do it. Obviously, I think my stuff showed I wasn't the most comfortable today, but we're just kinda at that point in camp where we're throwing every day and arm's getting used to it, but might be a little tired. But to load the bases like that, especially off two walks and a blooper, and get out of it, yeah, I was happy with that."

Some other notes and observations after the Nationals improved to 3-1 in spring play:

* Closer Jonathan Papelbon left the team to deal with what Baker called a "family emergency" and should return tomorrow.

* Baker was impressed with starter Stephen Strasburg's two-inning effort, which included five strikeouts.

"He just made one pitch - he got jumped, you know what I mean?" Baker said, referring to a first-pitch homer by Bryan Holaday. "If you're hitting off Stras, he had them eating out of his hand when he's throwing that first-pitch breaking ball. You can't do it all the time, but then maybe he didn't think that kid (Holaday) is going to be swinging at the first pitch. That's the only bad pitch he made. He threw some electric pitches up there. I mean, easy."

* Scott Sizemore, who blasted a go-ahead three-run homer on Wednesday in a Nationals victory came through again. This time, the 31-year-old non-roster invitee homered off Jose Valdez in the sixth to break a 4-4 tie, again going deep to center field. It'll be hard for Sizemore to force his way onto the 25-man roster for opening day, but he's certainly making people take notice.