WASHINGTON -- Baseball games, Nationals manager Dusty Baker says, are often dictated by a team's ability to knock opposing starting pitchers from the game. Today's starters and back-end bullpen arms, he says, are the toughest of hurlers to attack; if you can get to the opposing club's middle relief, that's when you have the best chance to win.
Washington's once-vulnerable middle relief has turned into an asset for Baker, and perhaps no one has played a bigger role in that transformation than veteran Matt Albers.
The 34-year-old right-hander is having a resurgent 2017 season. Among relievers who have thrown at least 50 innings, Albers ranks sixth with a 1.