Jimmy Nelson, bullpen make Neil Walker's homer stand up

When Neil Walker turned on a Tanner Roark curveball nine pitches into the right-hander's night and parked it in the second deck in right field, was there any way he foresaw that one swing standing up the rest of the way in a 1-0 victory?

"Not with these two ballclubs," said Walker in a nod to the Milwaukee Brewers' continuing charge toward a postseason berth and the Washington Nationals still running roughshod in the NL East.

"But tonight was about pitching and defense and getting out of jams. Jimmy (Nelson) threw the ball unbelievably and handed it off to the bullpen, which was pretty much clean. Just one of those nights that pitching took over.

"You certainly never think that one run’s going to do it, but we’re into September and you expect the games to be tight."

With Walker providing all the offense the Brewers would need, Nelson, Josh Hader and Corey Knebel did the heavy lifting the rest of the way in what wound up being just the second 1-0 victory in franchise history decided by a solo homer.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 1, Nationals 0

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Nelson improved to 11-6 on the season after his seven-inning outing, and it was the third that wound up defining his evening.

After opening by walking speedy leadoff man Trea Turner and then Wilmer Difo, he struck out Daniel Murphy only to plunk Ryan Zimmerman to load the bases with salty veterans Howie Kendrick and Jayson Werth coming up.

It was at that point that Nelson dug deep and registered consecutive strikeouts, getting Kendrick looking and Werth swinging to keep the Nationals off the board and Walker's homer as the difference-maker.

"I thought Jimmy was a little off with his fastball early in the game, and his slider and his curveball were very, very good," manager Craig Counsell said. "As soon as he got his fastball locked in, then he got on a pretty good roll.

"He made huge pitches there in that third inning. He was struggling with the fastball, they got something going, Turner caused a little havoc for us. But after the hit by pitch, he made some beautiful pitches."

Command issues were nothing new to Nelson coming into the season; he'd led the major leagues in both walks and hit batters in 2016 but has since gotten a hold of his repertoire. He now stands just eight strikeouts shy of his first 200-punchout season after registering 11 more in this one.

Whereas in the past he might have continued trying to throw the fastball to ill effect, he instead leaned on veteran catcher Stephen Vogt. Vogt's insistence on taking advantage of the off-speed pitches helped Nelson regain his footing, and he went on to fan five of the six batters he faced in the fourth and fifth.

"It’s happened to me plenty of times in the past – enough to learn how to work around it and use your other pitches until you settle in and get that fastball command," said Nelson. "Honestly, that comes from the catcher. Vogt did a great job of realizing that, that the off-speed stuff was good early.

"So we used that a lot early until I settled in and then we could use the fastball later in the game whenever the command got polished up on it."

Nelson also got some solid defense behind him on some hard-hit balls, most notably a 4-6-3 double play started by Eric Sogard on a one-hop rocket hit by Kendrick that almost took out second-base umpire Vic Carapazza.

Three groundouts in the seventh inning left Nelson at an even 100 pitches, but he was pulled in the bottom half of the frame after the Brewers got a pair of runners on with two outs and his spot in the lineup came up.

Nelson wound up scattering three hits and three walks, and his 11 strikeouts tied a career high. He's now struck out double-digit batters in six of his 28 starts, passing Zack Greinke and Yovani Gallardo (2011) for third-most in a single season in franchise history.

Ryan Braun, who was ejected in the fourth inning after arguing balls and strikes with home-plate umpire Mark Ripperger, took an early seat. But he's watched Nelson's emergence up close since the right-hander first debuted with the Brewers in 2013 and witnessed some tremendous development.

"It’s exciting," he said. "He is one of the biggest reasons we’ve had the amount of success we’ve had as a team. I’ve said many times, he works as hard as anyone I’ve ever played with. To see all of that work that he puts into it paying off for him and for us is exciting, it’s rewarding.

"It’s fulfilling for him, I’m sure, but it is for everyone else as well, because we’ve always seen him work so hard. He’s always put in the work to be the guy that he is now. There’s plenty of guys who do work hard and are never able to figure it out, so it’s really cool to see it all come together for him, to see him have a phenomenal year and lead our pitching staff."

Following Nelson were the electric lefty Hader, who struck out the side on just 12 pitches in the eighth, and Knebel, who ran his save total to 32 by fanning the side in the ninth.

"Both those guys really came out with their plus-plus stuff," Counsell said. "It was Corey’s third day in a row and stuff-wise, it was one of the best innings for him. Hader really just reared back and threw. Twelve pitches, 11 strikes – that’s quite an inning."

Walker's homer, by the way, snapped an 0-for-10 slump. He's now 2 for 27 with two homers against Washington this season.

As for Braun's ejection, Counsell said he didn't have an issue with it because he was fighting for proper calls. He was punched out by Ripperger in the first, but said his ejection stemmed from frustration that's been building.

"I would say it was spillover from the past couple of weeks," said Braun. "I feel like we have had a lot of bad pitches called strikes on us that were not strikes. The umpires are always doing their best. It’s not easy.

"Pure stuff is better than it’s ever been, catchers are better at framing pitches than they have ever been. But for us, a lot of those borderline pitches that we’re taking that are balls, are pitches that we’re fighting to take. When it’s called a strike, it’s frustrating as a hitter.

"My first at-bat, two pitches were called strikes that weren’t strikes. Obviously, I was frustrated, and at some point we have to start standing up for ourselves when that continually happens."