Eaton believes "things need to change"; Miller picking up slack in 'pen

Nationals manager Davey Martinez said Wednesday that he was not thrilled with the way his team is playing baseball right now. The club has started 2-3, the bullpen has struggled to record outs, the defense has made mistakes and the baserunning has caused opportunities to be taken off the board. The skipper deemed the 9-8 victory Wednesday over the Phillies as a "bittersweet win."

Right fielder Adam Eaton, who had a single, a walk and a run scored in Wednesday's come-from-behind win, wouldn't go as far as Martinez in the description of the game. But he did acknowledge the Nationals are going to have to play much better baseball to be successful this season.

"I wouldn't say it's bittersweet," Eaton said. "A win's a win, doesn't matter how ugly it is or how great it looks. I think a lot of things need to change.

"The team we had in spring training enjoyed themselves and had fun. They didn't play tennis. We went out and we just played, enjoyed one another, had a good time. Now all of sudden, the season hits and things change. The game speeds up and there is a full nine-inning game with nine on the other side that are all big leaguers. Hopefully, we can get these bumps out of the way, fix them and move on. That's why we play 162. That's the beauty of this league. Hopefully, it happens sooner rather than later."

So how do you play better when you make physical and mental mistakes? Weren't these issues supposed to be ironed out during spring training?

"You live and you learn," Eaton said. "I think failure is such a positive word if you learn from it. Failure is only a failure if you don't learn from it. You turn it into success. You turn it into a learning situation and then try not to make the mistake ever again. If you do that, then it's a positive thing. Whether you are young or old in this game, especially at this stage of the game, you learn something every day and improve. And if you don't, this game has a way of kicking you in the rear end. We will take the win but we have a lot to improve on and I think it shows."

* Reliever Justin Miller shone Wednesday when most of the rest of the bullpen had difficulty recording outs. The right-hander went two innings, allowing no runs on one hit and striking out one with no walks. The veteran said going two rather than one frame was not a problem for him and believes he is built to go longer than a specialist would.

"You go through a whole spring training," Miller said. "You train yourself for not just that one inning; you are going to throw two innings. That's basically my role. I'm not a one-inning guy right now, so if I have to go two innings, have to go three innings, it doesn't matter to me. As long as I go out there and attack the zone and attack hitters. It's fine."

So with Miller going two innings, could he be changing his role? Could he become more of a long man? Does the bullpen need a makeover of responsibilities? Miller said it's only April 4, so no panic button needs to be pressed yet.

"It's just early," Miller said. "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We still got a (157) games, we've only played five. It's a long season. Guys are going to make mistakes. We are going to rebound from it. We're not all going to be perfect ,so guys are going to go out there and keep trying to do their job. Attack the zone, attack hitters and just keep trying to fill up the zone."

But it is obvious that something is wrong with Trevor Rosenthal. The former closer has not recorded an out in seven matchups. He walked both batters he faced Wednesday. Miller, who also recovered from Tommy John surgery, understands that it is not easy to just come back and perform at a high level from the get go.

"Yeah, I went through Tommy John as well," Miller said of Rosenthal's situation. "Dude took 16 months off and pitched in a big league ballgame. He's out there trying to do his job. It's not like he's out there trying to walk guys left and right. The guy is out there battling his butt off and we're all pulling for him.

"You see he's got a big arm, so things will settle down. He's a proven vet. Things will turn around. It's early in the season and he's going to go through his little bumps. It's better to have it now than in September. If he goes through it now, learns from it now, it's fine. Everything is going to be fine."