Kelley on bullpen crew: "We're out there kind of as our own team"

I had a chance to speak with right-hander Shawn Kelley last weekend and asked him how the new coaching staff handled the bullpen.

I asked him about the frequency of which he has to get up to warm up during games and if that can be problematic in tiring him out before he is finally put into games. He said that is the norm among relief pitchers and comes with the job.

"The getting up and not getting in, that happens anywhere," Kelley said. "That's just part of the game. That's just part of the National League with not knowing if the pitcher's spot's going to come up.

"The thing here is we've got quality starters. (Pitching coach Mike) Maddux and (manager) Dusty (Baker) like to give the starter every chance to finish his inning and get deep in ballgames. That helps us.

"It kind of makes sense. We kind of think along with him: lefties are coming, righties are coming, what inning it is. Kind of have a feeling of when we are pitching.

Baker is asked pretty much before the game who is available in the bullpen. He usually denies that request because he doesn't want to tip his hand to the opponent.

Kelley said he can read the writing on the wall as to when he will pitch, but doesn't ever feel like he can't pitch because of too many appearances in a row.

"If I've thrown three of four, three in a row, usually I have a pretty good idea that they tell me they will probably stay away from tonight, you're not pitching," Kelley said. "As far as a role, no, they just wanted us all ready. We do a lot of matching up. From about the sixth inning on, we all just try to stay locked in and be ready for anything."

Kelley (1-0) has had a good start himself, going 17 games and 13 1/3 innings without allowing a run.

With obvious exception of closer Jonathan Papelbon, Kelley says the Nationals are more keen to getting outs by relievers by situation. Even Yusmeiro Petit was used for just one out last Friday.

"Any time you have a whole group that can be used pretty much in any situation, (it's a good situation)," Kelley said. "Even when you're so to speak long guy's going out there getting one big, bases loaded, that just shows what kind of group we are, and we all root for each other, we have each other's backs.

"There's not a lot of ego or selfishness out there, and any time you have that, you're going to be better as a collective unit because we spend a lot of time together. We're out there kind of as our own team, our own dugout out there."

The newcomers are Kelley, Petit, Matt Belisle (15-day disabled list) and Oliver Perez. Kelley says they have a good mix of experienced hurlers and guys that have made a quick splash in the minors to get to D.C.

"We've got a good blend," Kelley said. "We've got a few younger guys, but we got some veteran guys. We know we're not going to be out there a long time, we're not going to be out there two or three innings.

"Dusty's going to ask us to get two or three outs, or face one hitter in some situations. We try to focus on just go out there get the outs that he asks us, somebody's coming in behind us, eventually we'll get the ball to Pap and win the game."