Rivero back to his consistent self after two more scoreless innings

Quietly, Felipe Rivero has put together many consistent appearances. Nine in a row to be exact.

Wednesday night, he fired a 1-2-3 seventh inning, inducing three flyouts. Then in the eighth, the southpaw Rivero worked two outs before allowing a Howie Kendrick double. He then got Chris Taylor to fly out. Two scoreless innings for Rivero.

His previous outing was Sunday's 18-inning marathon against the Pirates. Rivero went a season-high and career-high matching three scoreless innings.

Rivero now has 15 1/3 scoreless innings since the meltdown on June 18 in San Diego. Against the Padres, Rivero allowed six runs (five earned) on three hits without recording an out. Since then, all zeroes.

And the last two outings were a combined five innings.

"We've been forced to take him further in games than he wanted to," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said before Wednesday's game. "He's been a two-, three-inning guy his last couple. His last few were three-inning stints out of necessity and because of extra innings.

"So him being a former starter, I think that really helped him. Now he can use all his pitches. I think it helped him, actually, to have those. We just have to be careful with him. He wasn't available yesterday because he went three innings."

Baker gave Rivero the off-days on Monday and Tuesday before employing him again to get the seventh and eighth innings Wednesday.

"I'd rather be able to use him two or three days in a row than I would just that one day," Baker said. "Because most of the time that means we're losing him at length, that means we're in extra innings or we're losing. I'd rather take him back to where he was before."

There was talk after the Padres game that maybe Rivero should be sent back to Triple-A. Since that tough loss, Rivero's ERA has dropped 2.29 points to 4.53.

"Rivero seems to have gotten back to his form from last year," Baker said after Wednesday's 8-1 win to even the series with the Dodgers. "He's throwing the ball great. More importantly, we gave our bullpen a rest after that long 18-inning game and quite a few guys pitched yesterday. Now we're strong going into (Thursday's) game."