Erick Fedde battles Reds and himself in Nationals’ 10-8 win in Cincinnati...

Erick Fedde was (2-1) in five starts with a 1.95 ERA, a 3.94 FIP, 14 walks, 23 strikeouts, and a .208/.304/.327 line against in 27 ²⁄₃ IP in May before he went up against the New York Mets in Citi Field and got hammered, giving up eight hits, one walk, and six runs over just 1 ¹⁄₃ IP before he was lifted from what ended up a 13-5 loss for Washington’s Nationals.

The worst part of it all, Fedde said, was the position he put his team in with his struggles in the brief outing.

“It’s brutal,” the 29-year-old righty said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after the loss.

“It lets the whole team down. If anything, if you’re able to at least go six and give up a bunch of runs, you put the team in a better position going forward. But today was just really unacceptable in a sense. I feel bad for the guys in the bullpen. I put them behind the 8-ball probably for the next week or so.”

“It wasn’t there for him today,” manager Davey Martinez said.

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“His misses were almost right down the middle to a good-hitting team. It didn’t happen for him today, but we’ll get him back, five days, and get him back out there.”

“After his last start, I told him to put that one behind you,” Martinez said before yesterday’s game.

“‘You’ve been throwing the ball well,’” his manager told him, “... so let’s get back to what he was doing really well, and that’s pounding the strike zone, using his cutter, his changeup, effectively, and his fastball. So I’m expecting him to go out there and give us five, six innings and keep us in the ballgame. But other than the last outing, he’s been pitching unbelievable for us. So I want him to go out and continue to do that.”

Fedde took the mound yesterday against the Cincinnati Reds on the road in Great American Ball Park, and gave up two runs early, with Joey Votto just missing a 3-run homer, which Juan Soto caught at the top of the wall in right field, before Kyle Farmer hit a two-out, two-run single to left field to put the home team up 2-0 after one.

It was 3-2 in the Nationals’ favor after three and a half, and Fedde worked around a two-out hit in a 10-pitch bottom of the fourth which left him at 74 total, but the second of two hits he gave up in the fifth inning ended his outing with two runners on and two out and his pitch count at 86 overall. Both runners he left on came around to score, but the Nationals rallied for seven runs over the final three innings, and beat the Reds, 10-8.

Erick Fedde’s Line: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 86 P, 52 S, 8/4 GO/FO.

Fedde generated just four swinging strikes overall, though he did get 20 called strikes on the day, 12 with his curve, which he threw 44% of the time, (up from 30% on the year), six with his sinker (41%, up from 34%), and two with his cutter (14%, down from 32%).

“He didn’t have any command with his cutter,” Martinez said when asked about Fedde’s mix being different from most starts, so he went more to his two-seamer (sinker).

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“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Fedde said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, when asked if he was struggling with his cutter command.

“I think it was just the batters that were, you know, that’s the first time in who knows how long that I’ve had that many righties in the lineup against me. So the cutter’s my best weapon to the lefties. I think that’s just where it came. And especially, I mean, a lot of their lineup is high-ball hitters. That’s where I use that pitch the most. So it just wasn’t, I thought, maybe my best pitch to get outs today.”

“He battled,” Martinez added. “He battled. He could have easily fell apart, and that’s — we talked about the maturity of Fedde now, right. He understands, hey he’s got to continue to go out there, continue to try to get outs for us and keep us in the game, and he did that today.”

“I think that first inning, I just felt a little rushed,” Fedde explained, “didn’t have my rhythm. But then once I got through that, settled in quite nicely.”

“Fedde kept us in the ballgame, after the first two innings, and like I said, I was proud of him,” Martinez said.