Venters made mechanical adjustment to return to form

DETROIT - Left-hander Jonny Venters made his Nationals debut Saturday with five big outs to keep his team in the game.

Venters arrived at a critical moment. The 27,716 at Comerica Park were riled up after the Tigers had rallied to tie the game at 3-3 with one out in fifth. Miguel Cabrera was standing at first base after delivering a two-run single.

The outing did not start out the way he had planned, however, when Venters hit Christin Stewart with his first pitch thrown. Cabrera went to second base.

But Venters settled in. He got Jeimer Candelario to ground into a fielder's choice. Trea Turner threw to Anthony Rendon to force out Cabrera for the second out in the frame. Then Venters got Ronny Rodríguez to fly out to right field to end the inning. The Nats headed to the sixth with the game tied 3-3.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez was impressed with Venters work in his return to the majors for the first time since May 17.

"Awesome to see," Martinez said. "That sinker was really good, he threw a couple sliders, he actually threw a changeup that, honestly, I didn't know he threw a changeup and it was really, really good. If we can get him and (Fernando) Rodney to pitch like the way they've been pitching, it helps our bullpen out tremendously."

Venters stayed in and retired the side in the sixth with three consecutive strikeouts. This was a big deal for Venters because just 45 days ago he could not find the plate with any of his pitches.

"I was struggling with everything," Venters said. "Couldn't really get anything over the plate early and when I did it was over the heart of the plate and was getting hit hard. So I really wasn't doing anything well. So I signed here and got back to the drawing board (to) try and figure it out. It's been better. Hopefully it can continue."

So he took the offer from the Nationals and headed to Double-A Harrisburg. When he arrived, he got to work with pitching coach Michael Tejera. Tejera found a mechanical issue in Venter's set up.

"Me and the pitching coach in Harrisburg, Mikey Tejera, he worked with me on some mechanical things. Make some adjustments, try to stay back a little. I was getting down the mound too quick. Stuff was flattening out. I was having a hard time finding the zone.

"So, I really grinded and worked on it," Venters continued. "It's starting to feel better. It was a struggle. Early in the year I had a hard time figuring out what I was doing. I got there and we went to work. He saw some things and we watched some video and fortunately it's been better."

Tejera found an eager student in Venters, a pitcher who has battled through three Tommy John surgeries for a chance to get back to the majors. After pitching for the Braves from 2010-2012, the left-hander did not pitch in a single big league game from 2013-2017.

"Jonny was very receptive to making adjustments," Tejera said. "He really liked the information we had for him. The guy is a professional. We worked on where he set up on the rubber and his delivery towards the plate."

Venters said he felt confident Tejera could help him because they both are southpaw pitchers.

"It's huge. Mikey is great to work with," Venters said. "He was a left-handed pitcher. It helps having somebody different who hasn't seen you. It's big. Here comes somebody that is new. Makes it easier to adjust. I think a change of scenery has been good. Hopefully I can get out there and help this team win some games."

Nationals manager Davey Martinez said having a coaching staff at the minor league level that can help big leaguers is immensely important when time is a factor in the middle of the season.

"Awesome," Martinez said of Tejera's work with Venters at Double-A. "In spring training watching those guys work and (you see) these coaches can hone in on what they're doing. It's kind of nice."

Martinez said assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel Doug Harris is critical to bridging the gap between coaches at the big league level and their minor league affiliates.

"Doug does a great job of communicating everything between their coaching staff and our coaching staff," Martinez noted. "Just really trying to be on the same page with everybody."

Venters said he sat down with Tejera to talk about what was going wrong. They then looked at video of when Venters was really clicking early in his career versus today.

"We talked for awhile and we looked at some video by himself and kind of gave me his thoughts," Venters said. "Then I would pitch and we would go over the video. We were kind of feeling for it. Just trying to do different things to kind of give me a little more time over the rubber to stay back. The last few adjustments we made seem to help."

Nationals pitching coach Paul Menhart said they moved Venters from the far left side of the rubber about one foot forward to the middle part. This move gives the left-handed hitter less time to pick up the ball after it leaves Venters' hand.

"It's still a work in progress," Venters cautioned. "But now I kind of have something to go to when I make a bad pitch. If I need to get outs quick, I can go to something that we've been working on to kind of stay back. I really enjoyed working with him. It was great."

One step forward for Venters on Saturday. He recorded five outs for the Nationals, striking out three. Now he wants to repeat that consistency in his next outing.