How A.J. Cole fought through without his best stuff

MIAMI - Nationals right-hander A.J. Cole allowed only two runs in his start Monday, but had to labor to get those 12 outs. Cole had to throw 79 pitches in just four innings and spoke after taking a no-decision in the 4-3 loss to Miami.

"I didn't have my best stuff tonight," Cole said. "But I fought to keep my team in the game. I went out there and still tried every inning to get my stuff where I wanted it to. I battled through it.

"It didn't really differ at all. Though I went out there and realized I all my stuff really wasn't working the way I wanted to. I just tried to concentrate on keeping the ball down and really actually locating the ball."

Cole said he battled Giancarlo Stanton, who hit a 448-foot solo homer in his first at-bat. But Cole then got him the next time up to end a threat in the third with a groundout to shortstop.

"The first time, I missed my spot with it, right over the middle of the plate and he hit it, took advantage of it," Cole said. "But almost any big league hitter will. Next time, I'll really concentrate, get my stuff where I want it to and really making a conscious effort of getting it out there where I need it to and not leaving it over the plate."

Cole is concerned a bit about his velocity, which has not been at the level he is accustomed to at Triple-A Syracuse.

"Since I've been up here, my velocity has been down a little bit from what I've been used to, but mostly I can put the ball where I want it to and tonight was a little different for me," Cole said.

Why has the velocity been down a bit?

"I really don't know on that one," Cole said.

Nationals manager Dusty Baker said the influence of hitting coach Barry Bonds played a part in the way the Marlins went after Cole.

"Yeah, most of the time, they're location," Baker said of Cole. "Most of the time, they're fastballs, plus again he's facing some better hitters and tonight we knew that this team could hit fastballs. But it was his turn to pitch. We knew that you were going to have to be at your best because this team could hit fastballs and when you got Barry Bonds - I know Barry, he teaches. You saw they were jumping on fastballs even when they were outs."

So when Cole's pitch count rose in the fourth inning, Baker was worried the Marlins had locked in on him.

"That third time around, they were hitting some balls pretty hard off Cole," Baker said. "And this is a fastball-hitting team, so we went to (Mat) Latos because Latos has a much better breaking ball. This team, like most teams can hit the fastball they have trouble with quality breaking balls."

Blake Treinen and Koda Glover were able to keep the Marlins off the board in the final 2 2/3 innings. Baker said Glover is no longer teeing up the ball for opponents, which has led him out of this recent funk. Glover went two scoreless innings and struck out two.

"The results are he's not center-cutting the balls," Baker said. "There are strikes and there are strikes that are quality strikes He was almost throwing too many strikes down the heart of the plate.

"Tonight, he was back to the Koda that we had seen before. When you got young players and young rookies, you're going to have some ups and downs and some hots and some colds because they're learning how to adjust and make adjustments from last time or from pitch to pitch. Hopefully, that they can learn from (that)."