Without Bullpen Help Nats Lose: Is It Time to Bring Up Storen?

In the 13th game of a stretch where the Nationals play on 15 consecutive days, the last thing Washington needed was an extra-inning game.

Despite a quality start from John Lannan, and timely hitting from the Nats batters, the club couldn't hold on and lost 4-3 in the bottom of the 10th at Wrigley.

In the end it all came down to a worn-out bullpen. Brian Bruney looked absolutely gassed in the 10th inning, his second inning of work, walking two batters including a game winning free pass on four pitches to Aramis Ramirez with the bases loaded. Bruney's final losing pitch was his 25th of the night, the most he had pitched since April 5 in a 1-11 loss to Philadelphia.

But what was manager Jim Riggleman to do? Capps and Clippard were both unavailable because they had pitched previously on consecutive nights, Miguel Batista had pitched three innings only two nights before, and the only arm left in the pen who was fresh was Jesse English. Not wanting to waste his last arm he left Bruney in to see if he could finish out the inning, instead the reliever gave Chicago the win on a free pass.

A breakdown of Bullpen Use During the 13-Game Streak

Capps: 6 appearances, 7.1 IP, 2 back-to-back appearances 
Clippard:  6 appearances, 8.1 IP, 2 back-to-back appearances
Bruney: 7 appearances, 7 IP, 0 back-to-back appearances
Batista: 4 appearances, 10 IP, 1 back-to-back appearance
Burnett: 5 appearances, 2.2 IP, 1 back-to-back-to-back appearance 
Walker: 3 appearances, 6.1 IP, 0 back-to-back appearances 
English: 3 appearances, 4.2 IP, 0 back-to-back appearances

The overuse of the bullpen hasn't exactly been Riggleman's fault. As you can see above, he has done a good job of evening out the innings between the pitchers, but poor starting has hurt them.