Voth's short start sets up Romero's rough debut in loss (updated)

Draw up a recipe for pitching trouble, and this is what you'd come up with: After last night's starter went 2 2/3 innings, and with 1 4/9 games on tomorrow's schedule, the Nationals knew they needed quality and length from Austin Voth in today's series finale at Citi Field.

Voth often provides quality, but the length part still eludes the young right-hander. Which meant by bottom of the fifth this afternoon, Davey Martinez had little choice but to put a left-hander whose last competitive appearance came two years ago at low-Single-A on the mound to make his major league debut in a close ballgame.

The result was all too predictable. Seth Romero, the franchise's 2017 first-round pick with only 47 1/3 innings of professional experience due to injuries and disciplinary action, came close to surviving the vat of boiling water he was tossed into. But one misplaced changeup to Tomás Nido did the rookie in and ultimately propelled the Mets to an 8-2 victory in today's series finale.

"Honestly, I don't even really think I've processed it yet," said Romero, who was activated off the traveling taxi squad only 30 minutes before gametime. "But I can't wait to get back out there on the mound again for whenever they need me."

The 24-year-old can be excused if his head is still spinning and his heart is still racing. He was made his surprise debut only because the Nationals needed a last-minute bullpen replacement for Sean Doolittle, who was placed on the injured list with right knee fatigue. He had felt good about the way he was throwing the ball in workouts and intrasquad games, but he hadn't actually pitched in a real ballgame since he injured his elbow two years ago in Hagerstown, his career halted by the combination of Tommy John surgery and a global pandemic that wiped out the 2020 minor league season.

Yet here he was on a Thursday afternoon in New York, pitching in a 3-1 game. Romero endured through a wild bottom of the fifth in which he struck out a pair but loaded the bases with two outs. He almost wriggled out of it, but his 0-2 changeup to Nido stayed in the zone, and New York's backup catcher blasted it 394 feet to left-center for the grand slam that blew a competitive game wide open.

"I wanted to get the changeup down, like I threw the first one I threw to him," Romero said. "But I kind of just got under it, pushed it up there, gave him a good pitch to hit."

It was a rude welcome to the big stage for Romero, but it also underscored how many things had to go wrong for the 24-year-old to even find himself in such a delicate situation.

It begins with the state of the Nationals bullpen, which has now seen three veteran left-handers landed on the IL: Roenis Elías, Sam Freeman and Doolittle. With no more southpaws on the active roster, general manager Mike Rizzo decided to gamble and call up Romero, who was already in New York working out as part of the five-man taxi squad after opening the season at the club's alternate training site in Fredericksburg.

Even so, Martinez probably would have preferred to ease a rookie reliever into the big leagues with a lower-leverage appearance.

But that wasn't possible today, because Aníbal Sánchez didn't make it out of the third inning last night, because the Nationals have to pick up their suspended game with the Orioles in the top of the sixth tomorrow before then playing their regularly scheduled nine-inning contest, and because today's starter couldn't provide the length his team desperately needed.

Voth wasn't entirely to blame for the 86 pitches he threw in only four innings. Carlos Torres' erratic strike zone prolonged several at-bats and a couple of innings and led to the ejection of Stephen Strasburg, who was barking at the plate umpire from his seat in the stands beyond the dugout.

"I actually thought the umpire threw me out of the game," Martinez said with a laugh. "So I was kind of heated up. I told Strasburg: He was a big fan today. He got thrown out as a fan. I love Stephen. I can't tell you what he said, but I love him."

"It makes me feel good, just knowing he has my back and he's watching me pitch and got eyes on the umpire to see how the game's going," Voth said of his more-accomplished rotation mate. "He's fighting for me. That's great."

Voth also was hurt by some less-than-stellar defense, most notably right fielder Adam Eaton on Brandon Nimmo's deep fly to right-center in the top of the first that became a double. And Billy Hamilton's 12-pitch at-bat later that inning dragged things out even more.

But as has often been the case during his still-developing career, Voth struggled to sustain success two times through an opposing lineup. And he barely lasted long enough to get a chance to face New York a third time.

Dominic Smith's solo homer in the second got the Mets on the board. Nido's two-run homer in the fourth gave them the lead.

And when he walked off the mound at the end of the fourth with his pitch count at 86, Voth's afternoon was over.

"I was kind of nibbling a little bit, maybe too low or too high at times," he said. "And I just couldn't find the strike zone. I just had to battle. It wasn't pretty today."

And because of that, Martinez made the fateful decision to bring a rookie into a 3-1 game.

"We were hoping Voth gives us six or seven (innings), and then we've got the back end of the bullpen," the manager said. "But 86 pitches in four innings, that's a lot. That's a heavy load. With all the lefties coming up, I thought that's a good spot for Romero."

It would've helped if the Nationals lineup had been able to string together hits, but those were in short supply today against David Peterson. The New York lefty only gave up one in his five innings: Yan Gomes' fifth-inning single to right.

The Nats did score on Peterson to take a 1-0 lead in the first, but they did so via two walks, Nido's throwing error on Eaton's bunt in front of the plate and an RBI groundout from Howie Kendrick.

Their only other run came in the sixth, when (surprise, surprise) Juan Soto launched his fourth homer of the four-game series, this one a 435-foot solo shot to left-center off reliever Travis Hughes.

Soto now has five homers in eight games played this season. Clearly, he's not the problem. But the Nationals have more than a couple of those that need to be solved.