After mechanical tweaks, Doolittle seals win

ATLANTA -- Sean Doolittle spent the past few days pouring over video of himself, searching for any solution to work his way out of this brief rut he's been in on the mound lately. After giving up runs in three of his past four outings, including a total of five runs in his two most recent appearances, Doolittle began watching outings from early in the 2018 season, when he was tossing some of the best innings of his career.

He got a chance to put those adjustments to the test on Tuesday night at SunTrust Park while aiming to protect a one-run lead in the ninth inning against the Braves. And while debuting some new mechanical tweaks, Doolittle struck out three batters during his scoreless ninth, working around a one-out single from Dansby Swanson to punch out Johan Camargo, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman to seal the Nationals’ 5-4 victory.

“That was a really big for me,” Doolittle said. “And probably an even bigger win for the team.”

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When scouring the video from the beginning of 2018, Doolittle noticed some subtle differences in his delivery he wanted to get back to. He altered his hand positioning and remained taller on the mound, which helps improve his deception. He even ditched the toe-tap in his delivery -- the same one that caused controversy a few weeks ago when Cubs manager Joe Maddon called attention to it.

Doolittle denied Maddon’s complaints had anything to do with his changes, instead pointing to giving up four runs without recording an out against the Mets last week and then nearly blowing another save against the Marlins on Friday.

The adjustments helped Doolittle get closer to where he was in 2018. That season, he had some of the highest spin rates and the best extension of his career, and he stayed at a good pace on the mound.

“It’s easier to repeat your mechanics, whatever they are, if you have good rhythm, if you have that good tempo,” Doolittle said. “At times earlier this year in some of those rough ones, I was getting so slow that I was almost starting and stopping and then I had to start again. And when you do that you have to recruit energy from somewhere. It can be tough to maintain good mechanics if you're not really, really disciplined.

“I think tonight was a really good step in the right direction. It’s obviously an ongoing process for the rest of the season, but tonight is definitely something I can build from.”

For all the issues with the Nationals’ bullpen, Doolittle has been far from one of them. His ERA is inflated a bit to 3.52 after the previous two rough outings (it had been 1.71 before the Mets game) but he has struck out 28 batters with seven walks in 23 innings with two blown saves in 12 chances.

But the Nats had become used to Doolittle being almost automatic ever since he was acquired in the middle of the 2017 season, which makes his struggles this past week all the more baffling. And it made his outing Tuesday that much more encouraging.

“The last two haven’t been spectacular, but he’s been solid for us all year,” right fielder Adam Eaton said. “When he comes in, we have confidence that he’s going to get the job done. Three of the four hitters he got out are really quality batters. Huge for us. I’m out there smacking my glove around and cheering because I’m pretty fired up.”