Despite loss to Marlins, Roark looks comfortable in starter role

Right-hander Tanner Roark started again for the Nationals on Saturday night against the Marlins.

Roark finished 4 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits but only two runs with one walk, two strikeouts and one hit by pitch. He fired 69 pitches, 40 for strikes. He suffered the loss in the 2-0 defeat.

But Roark (4-5) has a track record of success as a starter. In 43 games, Roark was 21-12 with a 3.06 ERA heading into Saturday's affair. In 2014, he won 15 games for the Nationals as a starter. This season, Roark has spent most of his time as a reliever.

Roark made 31 starts in 2014. In 2013, his first major league season with the Nationals, Roark made five starts and nine relief appearances. This season, he made 28 relief appearances and Saturday was his eighth start.

It looks like Roark is more comfortable as a starter. He showed last season he could get through tough, high-leverage situations and give the Nationals a shot in each game. With the return of Craig Stammen next season, Roark should be given the shot to be the fifth starter again. I wouldn't expect Doug Fister to return. Roark's deal is around $500,000 a season. He will get a raise on that for 2016. Fister made $11.4 million this season and was demoted to the bullpen.

Having a healthy Stammen cures a lot of issues.

Stammen can spot start, be a specialist to get a batter out, be stretched for one or two innings and even come in high-leverage situations. No one in the bullpen has been able to replicate that this season.

With Drew Storen out for the season with a broken right thumb, the Nationals would need a eighth-inning pitcher for next season. Could left-hander Felipe Rivero be that guy? Most likely they would look for a pitcher who can throw some fire in the eighth to replace Storen and get to Jonathan Papelbon.

With Storen's broken thumb, could the implosion against the Mets be his final appearance with the Nationals?

Storen has 95 saves and a 21-13 record with a 3.02 ERA in 355 career games for the Nationals. He had a career-high 43 saves in 2011, but also had moments that didn't go his way, most notably the 2012 and 2014 playoffs and this week against the Mets. If the Nationals do not make the postseason in these final 20-plus games of 2015, the roster will look vastly different in 2016.

But one thing that should return to what happened in 2014 is Roark. He should go back to being a starter. He would be very effective in that role. He just looks comfortable and at ease in that spot. Something Storen certainly didn't feel shortly after Jonathan Papelbon's arrival.