When the Washington Nationals acquired Jonathan Papelbon before the trade deadline in July, it was expected that Matt Williams could be creative with another solid reliever in his bullpen.
Of course, that hasn’t happened at all. Washington has played in 33 games since acquiring Papelbon on July 28th. He’s pitched in just 11 of them, including seven of the team’s 14 wins. He’s getting plenty of rest (has only pitched on consecutive days twice), isn’t overworked at all (has thrown more than 16 pitches only twice), and isn’t facing too many batters (hasn’t faced more than five batters in an appearances).
Yet, Matt Williams refuses to use him more often, despite the Nationals continuing to take on water and blowing a pair of leads this week in St. Louis. Why not?
Well, because someone has to close out games! Via the Washington Post…
“We’ve used everybody just about to get to the eighth inning,” he began, when asked to explain his thought process. “We’ve got it setup for the eighth and the ninth. The eighth doesn’t go our way, and the score is tied. So everybody wants to know why you don’t use Papelbon in that situation? Let’s say, for instance, Pap throws a clean ninth and we score in the 10th. Who’s closing the game for us? I guess it’d be ‘Somebody,’ right?
“All these people want to know why Papelbon isn’t in the game. Because we lost,” Williams continued. “He’s our closer. He’s the the one that closes the game. Now when you’re at home, it’s a different story. It’s a different story because you always have the hammer at home. You always have the last at-bat at home. But on the road it’s a different story. You know, 99 times out of 100, every single manager is not going to use their closer on the road in a tie game because they need somebody to close that game.”
Dear Matt: Papelbon can’t save a game IF YOUR TEAM LOSES THE DAMN GAME.
Williams also had an issue with the characterization that his bullpen usage is predetermined based on designated roles.
“They’re not predetermined,” he said. “It depends. It depends on how the game goes. Listen, we used everybody in the bullpen to get to the eighth inning and unfortunately that was the case last night because we had guys all over the basepaths, we had them threatening, we had to make moves. It is what the game is. We’re trying to win that game. And we had it set up the way we wanted it set up going into the eighth. It didn’t work.”
While it is true that the Nationals used a ton of relievers in Tuesday night’s loss to the Cardinals, that situation was created in part *by* Williams when an ineffective Joe Ross was pulled in the third inning. Doug Fister replaced Ross, allowed two hits over 2 1/3 scoreless…and then was pinch hit for with the bases empty in the top of the sixth inning.
Matt Thornton replaced Fister, and was pulled after facing three hitters. Blake Treinen faced two hitters in the sixth before getting pulled. Felipe Rivero pitched the seventh, and was pulled after a 1-2-3 inning. That’s three pitchers, throwing two innings, combining for 25 pitches and eight batters faced. Drew Storen pitched the eighth and allowed two runs, and Casey Janssen allowed three in the ninth to earn the loss.
The management from Williams was bizarre, but some of the blame here has to be shifted onto GM Mike Rizzo – despite rosters expanding to 40 men on Tuesday, Washington called up only one pitcher, the aforementioned Solis. Why not load up the bullpen with extra arms so Williams has extra options to waste in the middle innings? It’s insanity.
The Nationals haven’t had a day off since August 24th, don’t have another day off until September 10th, are only a game above .500, and their bullpen is getting worked to death every night…while Jonathan Papelbon sits and waits for save opportunities that aren’t coming.
