Relief-induced losses taking emotional toll on Nationals

BALTIMORE - The Nationals are exceptionally good at most of the things they need to do to win ballgames. Problem is, the one thing they are not even close to exceptionally good at doing is the one thing that almost always results in a loss.

It's one thing to lose games late via poor relief pitching. It happens to every team a number of times during a season. But it's happening to the Nationals at a far-too-frequent rate, the kind that can have a lasting and negative effect on an otherwise exceptional and confident ballclub.

Tonight's 5-4 12-inning loss to the Orioles - a game the Nationals led by three runs in the eighth - was merely the latest to follow this pattern. And it left the clubhouse as dismayed as it has been at any other point through the season's first five-plus weeks.

"It takes a big emotional toll," manager Dusty Baker said. "One of the biggest downers in baseball is when you blow a game late. Especially when you have a lead like that a couple times this week. It certainly tested my team's emotional strength and stability, and we'll see how we come out of this."

The Nationals, for now, are just fine. They still own a 21-12 record, best in the National League. Even after dropping both games of the first half of their annual Battle of the Beltways with the Orioles, they still lead their division by 4 1/2 games.

But nobody inside the clubhouse is trying to hide the fact anymore that they have a serious bullpen problem. They know it. The entire baseball world knows it.

The question now is not only how the front office attempts to fix the problem, but also how the players and coaching staff attempt to cope with it until it's fixed.

"We're a team," said Max Scherzer, whose eight dominant innings tonight were wasted. "Look, everybody's out here grinding, doing everything they absolutely can to win ballgames. Nothing's going to change anybody's determination or anybody's attitude in this clubhouse."

That's what they're saying publicly, and it's all they can say after watching their bullpen be directly responsible for six of their 12 losses to date.

But it's not unfair to wonder whether the Nationals' outward sense of confidence is not an accurate reflection of how they truly feel inside.

The majority of the Nats did everything they could to win what proved to be a highly competitive and entertaining game. Scherzer carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning for the 10th time in 74 career starts with the Nationals and wound up allowing only two runs over eight frames. Daniel Murphy and Adam Lind each homered, with Lind's three-run pinch-hit blast giving the team a 4-1 lead that should have been enough to lock up a victory.

But there are no locked-up victories for this bullpen, not unless the lead is of a much greater amount. So even though he needed only three outs from that beleaguered group tonight, even that proved too tough a task.

Enny Romero, the flamethrowing left-hander who has been among the few bright spots to date, gave up the tying runs in the bottom of the ninth via a leadoff walk and later two-out RBI hits by Jonathan Schoop and J.J. Hardy.

"Very frustrating for me, because I don't want to walk the first guy," he said.

Romero is part of a relief corps that now owns a 5.47 ERA (worst in the NL) and has allowed 149 batters to reach base in 97 total innings. Those are numbers that can shatter even the most mentally strong pitchers in the world.

"The bullpen confidence is good," Romero said. "We're trying to do a good job when we come in the game. We are confident right now. We are all on the same page."

The good news is that Shawn Kelley and Koda Glover are days away from returning from the disabled list, which should help. But even then, Baker will find himself trying to mix and match the late innings with whatever remaining options he has, none of them a sure thing.

Tonight, that meant Jacob Turner (another bright spot in the big picture) had to finish the bottom of the 10th, then pitch the 11th and the 12th. Turner wound up taking the loss after loading the bases with one out and then surrendered the game-winning single to Mark Trumbo.

Inside the clubhouse, all the positive developments from the night felt like an afterthought. These days, it doesn't matter much what the Nationals do in the game's first seven innings. One way or another, everything that happens after that is going to be the story.

"Everybody in here knows what we need to do to win, and that's all you can do," Scherzer said. "That's all you can play for. You try to add anything more and think you have to play better, pitch better, only bad things can happen. You've just got to stay within yourself and keep doing it, believe that everybody's going to be able to get the job done."