Turner, Guthrie make final cases to make pitching staff

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - While bigger names came and went this spring, Jacob Turner remained in the Nationals clubhouse, a quiet-but-constant presence that didn't draw much attention.

Here we are, though, with the club breaking camp and heading north in fewer than 48 hours, and the tall right-hander remains a member of the spring training roster, still theoretically battling for a spot on the opening day roster.

The odds remain long; his only hope at this point, beyond injury to a member of the regular rotation, is to stick around as a long man in the bullpen. The Nationals haven't decided if they're even keeping one of those, and if they do, he'd still have to beat out Jeremy Guthrie and Vance Worley.

But the Nationals have been giving Turner an extended look, including two starts here at the end of camp that culminated this evening against the Marlins.

"We don't really know him," manager Dusty Baker said. "We're giving him every opportunity. He's shown some times when he could be dominant. And then other times, he'll lose track of the strike zone, which he did tonight. And then he settled back down again. But as of right now, it just looks like he needs to stay out of that big inning, because they did all their damage off him in that one inning."

The Marlins indeed did all their damage off Turner in the top of the first, stacking up a single, a walk, a double, a stolen base and a throwing error in succession to plate three runs. After that, the righty cruised, retiring 11 in a row before departing after the fourth.

Put it all together, and Turner has a nondescript 5.50 ERA this spring, but steady improvement over the last month.

"I felt like I've really progressed from my first outing to now," he said. "Which obviously is what we're all trying to do here. Obviously tonight I felt like I threw the ball well. Sometimes you give up runs on fewer baserunners than others. But I've been happy with how I've been competing out there."

An opening day roster spot may be too much to ask at this point, but if Turner accepts an assignment to Triple-A Syracuse, he might well be among the first the Nationals would call upon if they need a starter, along with A.J. Cole.

"Yeah, we'd like for him to stay in our organization," Baker said.

More form Baker after the Nationals' 4-2 loss to the Marlins in their final home game at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches for this spring ...

On Guthrie, who tossed four innings of one-run ball in relief of Turner and lowered his spring ERA to 2.41: "The thing about him, he throws strikes. And he throws quality strikes for the most part. I looked up, and he was 3-to-1 ratio strikes-to-balls. That's a pretty good ratio. He threw the ball well again tonight. He's had a good spring. He's had a very good spring."

On Trea Turner's web gem at shortstop, and his overall defensive play this spring: "He's a very good shortstop. Most of his errors have come on throwing errors, and I think he only has a couple of them (three in 22 games). It's not like he's making an error every day out there. I know and he knows he's under scrutiny, but the thing about him is, he's a calm young man that just goes out there and plays. He's played well for us. (Infield instructor Chris Speier) has left him alone for the most part. Whenever he does make a mistake, he doesn't harp on it, but he learned from that. Because Chris addresses it, usually within a couple of days. If Chris is satisfied, I'm satisfied, because he's our infield coach and he knows what he's doing. He's only going to get better."

On Jayson Werth, who homered in the second inning after fouling a ball off his foot and wound up leaving the game after four innings: "He came out cause he hit the ball off his toe. We just didn't want it to get sore, because the guys were slated to go 4-5 innings anyway. So I just thought it was time to get him out."