Game 93: Astros at Nats

The Nationals look for another big night at the plate, while Blake Butera takes responsibility for Cole Henry's struggles Monday night

After a bonkers, 12-11 win over the Astros on Monday night, what do the Nationals have in store for us tonight? With this team, you never really know, other than having a pretty good hunch it will involve a lot of runs scored.

The most-productive lineup in baseball blasted Houston starter Mike Burrows for 10 runs in the series opener. Now they’ll take their whacks at another right-hander with an inflated ERA in Tatsuya Imai. The 28-year-old Japan native has a 6.14 ERA through his first 12 MLB starts, having surrendered eight homers in 48 1/3 innings while issuing 30 walks. Sounds like a night to be patient until he throws something over the plate.

Andrew Alvarez starts for the Nats, having gone 4 2/3 scoreless innings at Fenway Park last week as a bulk guy behind Brad Lord. The bullpen should be in better shape tonight personnel wise, so Blake Butera shouldn’t feel the need to push the left-hander further than he prefers. But if Alvarez is cruising and maintains a low pitch count … why not let him continue?

Today’s newcomer to the bullpen is left-hander Matt Krook, who finally joins the active roster three days he was claimed off waivers from the Athletics. He replaces Cole Henry, who was optioned right back to Triple-A Rochester after throwing 44 pitches Monday night. More on that below ...

HOUSTON ASTROS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: Nationals TV (channel listings)
Radio: 106.7 FM
Weather: Chance of storms, 81 degrees, 7 mph in from right

ASTROS
2B Jose Altuve
DH Yordan Alvarez
3B Isaac Paredes
1B Christian Walker
RF Cam Smith
LF Zach Dezenzo
CF Brice Matthews
SS Nick Allen
C Christian Vazquez

RHP Tatsuya Imai

NATIONALS
RF James Wood
1B Luis García Jr.
3B Curtis Mead
DH CJ Abrams
C Keibert Ruiz
LF Daylen Lile
SS Nasim Nuñez
2B Jorbit Vivas
CF Jacob Young

LHP Andrew Alvarez

Photo by Billy Sabatini / ALL-PRO REELS

BUTERA TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR HENRY’S OUTING

When Cole Henry cruised through the top of the seventh on 13 pitches Monday night, Blake Butera decided to send the right-hander back to the mound for the top of the eighth, recognizing his bullpen options were thin after heavy usage in recent days. Henry proceeded to give up four runs while recording only two outs, serving up a three-run blast to the Astros’ Brice Matthews on his 44th pitch of the appearance and turning a 12-7 lead into a 12-11 nail-biter.

The Nationals optioned Henry back to Triple-A Rochester after the game, making this a one-day MLB stint for him. That cleared the way for the club to add Matt Krook to the active roster three days after he was claimed off waivers from the Athletics.

It has become something of a recent pattern for Butera to ask relievers who were effective for one inning to return for a second inning of work. And in several cases, those relievers have faltered badly after taking the mound again.

The rookie manager accepted responsibility for the situation he placed Henry in Monday night.

“Look, I will 100 percent wear Cole Henry’s poor second inning last night,” Butera said. “To be very transparent and truthful, I think we did Cole a disservice because we didn’t have him throw multiple innings at Triple-A. But a lot of times when we bring a player up from Triple-A, it’s because our bullpen’s thin and we’re going to need them to throw multiple innings. We’ve seen it with Cole Henry, we’ve seen it with Zak Kent, we’ve seen it with Paxton Schultz. Pretty much every guy we’ve brought up from Triple-A, they’re not here to throw one inning. They’re coming up because we need coverage.”

The issue, Butera admitted, is that some of these relievers have not been properly prepped in the minor leagues to throw multiple innings. Henry, for example, has thrown more than one inning only once in 16 minor-league outings this season, topping the 25-pitch mark only once along the way. He’s been asked to go more than one inning in five of his 11 MLB appearances and has thrown more than 30 pitches in all of five of those outings, twice exceeding the 40-pitch mark.

“We’ve discussed that as a group, as an organization,” Butera said. “We’re going to make sure going forward those guys are getting the workload that they’re going to be expected to do up here when they are in Triple-A.”