With two outs in the seventh inning of Washington’s 2-1 win over Atlanta on Monday night, manager Matt Williams climbed the dugout steps and walked to the mound, presumably to remove starter Doug Fister from the game.
Fister had only allowed two hits to that point, but he had walked two of the last four batters. His command was wavering, and he had just thrown pitch No. 101. All signs pointed to the end of his night.
But when Williams left the dugout, he didn’t signal to the bullpen. When he arrived at the mound, he didn’t reach for the ball. He gave Fister the option to stay in the game and read the intensity in his eyes.
“[Williams] asked me, ’Hey, what do you got?’ And I say, ’Hey, I want him. I want this guy,’” Fister said. “He was ready for that answer.”
Williams turned and walked back to the dugout as the crowd roared its approval. Then he watched from the second step as Fister induced an inning-ending groundout, the exclamation point to an already stellar outing. The lanky right-hander allowed just five base runners over seven scoreless frames, and Drew Storen picked up his second save in as many nights two innings later.
With a win over their National League East rivals, the Nationals expanded their division lead to eight games and cut their magic number to 12. They also gained valuable momentum by winning the series-opener against a team that has bullied them for much of the past two seasons.
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“We’ve struggled all year against the Braves. That’s nothing new to anybody,” Storen said. “That’s a tight game that could swing either way with just a couple of pitches. For us to lock that down, that’s really big.”
On Monday night, their success started with Fister. Since arriving in Washington by way of an offseason trade with the Detroit Tigers, the 6-foot-8 sinkerballer has paced one of the best starting rotations in the NL. He impressed again against the Braves, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out three.
The lone hiccup in his night came in the seventh, when he walked Freddie Freeman and Tommy La Stella in a span of four batters. Williams saw Fister slipping and walked to the mound for a chat, even though he had no plans to take him out of the game.
“I want to read him. I want to make sure that he’s feeling OK,” Williams said. “I asked him how he was feeling and he said he was good. So I turned around.”
Fister certainly appreciated the gesture.
“That’s the epitome of showing confidence, and that’s what great managers do is show confidence in guys,” he said.
The meeting might have had a psychological impact on Fister at the time, though he maintained it did not change his approach. What was clear was the impact it had on the crowd, a relatively calm group on a dreary Monday night that suddenly rose to its feet and stayed there until the inning-ending grounder that was collected by Ian Desmond.
Was there any managerial strategy behind the move?
“You got to use that,” Craig Stammen said. “In football, [the coach] can stand on the sideline and kind of raise [up] and try to get the crowd going, but that’s like his only play right there.”
After winning 12 of his first 17 starts as a National, Fister entered Monday in the midst of slide, having lost three straight decisions while allowing at least three earned runs in each start. He bounced back by throwing sinking fastballs almost exclusively, especially on the inner part of the plate against right-handed hitters.
When Fister eventually exited the game after the seventh, he was replaced first by setup man Tyler Clippard, who allowed a double and a walk, and then Matt Thornton, who allowed a two-out RBI single to Freeman that cut Washington’s lead in half. Craig Stammen took over one batter later, inducing a pop fly to Adam LaRoche in foul territory to end the inning.
That left the ninth to Storen for a second consecutive night.
As Rafael Soriano continues to work through mechanical problems, particularly with his slider, Storen has been the primary benefactor. His second save of the week was even more impressive than the first, featuring three strikeouts with three different finishing pitches: a changeup away to Chris Johnson, a slider up in the zone to La Stella and a fastball past Andrelton Simmons.
“He’s got a little more moxie, using all his pitches more than he ever has,” Clippard said of Storen, his fellow reliever and closest friend on the team. “I think he relishes the ninth.”
With 20 games remaining, including five more against the Braves, the Nationals have an opportunity to effectively shut the door on the division by the middle of next week.
Monday was a significant first step toward doing just that, though its significance was downplayed by most in the Nationals clubhouse and completely ignored by others.
“There’s no significance other than we won this game,” Williams said bluntly. “We’ve got a tough customer tomorrow, and against a team that plays really well here. So we’ll concentrate on that and go no further.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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