Needing to solidify their lefty situation in bullpen

WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals’ chances worsened with almost every pitch Roenis Elías threw to a lefthanded batter Tuesday night. The reliever, himself a lefty acquired at the trade deadline for situations just like these, got rocked.

The first batter he faced, the Mets’ Jeff McNeil, homered to lead off the eighth. Brandon Nimmo did the same on Elías’ first pitch of the ninth. Elías retired Michael Conforto on a popup but then allowed a single to lefty Joe Panik.

Manager Dave Martinez jogged out of the dugout and Elías’ night was over.

Elías later asserted “there’s nothing wrong. That’s baseball.” He explained Tuesday’s outing nose-dived more because of location than stuff and said that will improve with more innings as he works his way back from the injured list. He returned to the team Friday after spending a month there with a right hamstring strain.

“Those pitches I left over the plate that got hit out?” Elías said in Spanish through a team translator. “If I locate them where I want to locate them, they don’t hit that. That’s the biggest thing.”

The Nationals are running out of time. Their lack of a reliable lefty-on-lefty matchup option is a concern and, coupled with an impending four-game series against the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves — the team with one of the game’s best left-handed hitters in Freddie Freeman — it has prompted a bigger question: Who can the Nationals trust to get left-handed hitters out?

Martinez remains convinced it must be Elías. He believes Elías’ struggles against left-handed hitters stems from too much fastball, not enough breaking ball. He wants his reliever to use the “really good” changeup more.

“What I feel like I need to do is keep pitching,” Elías said. “That’s basically it.”

The manager understands this and saw Tuesday’s outing as a hiccup.

“I’m not down on him at all,” Martinez said. “He came off the IL and we got to get him out there.

“And he’s got to get lefties out.”

The Nationals need Elías because they have few other options. They do, however, have one other left-hander in the bullpen. But Sean Doolittle is supposed to be the closer, right?

Martinez asserted that was still Doolittle’s role until he returned last week from his rehab assignment. Then the two met and Doolittle said his stuff wasn’t there.

His fastball dipped from about 94 mph in the majors to barely touching 90 for Class A Potomac, so they decided he shouldn’t close. They concluded, for the time being, to use Doolittle in low-leverage situations while he rebuilds his arm.

Doolittle is not sure what’s next. He doubled down on his commitment to do whatever the team needed.

“Hopefully I’ll be in the mix in some capacity in Atlanta,” he said, “especially with the lefties they have in their lineup.”

The Nationals will still likely go to Elías the next time they need a lefty specialist, to give him the chance to work through this. But as the moments bigger, each decision becomes more important.