Nats let Ribalta celebrate 1st career save before sending him to Minors
This browser does not support the video element.
WASHINGTON -- In a both surprising and, in retrospect, unsurprising move, the Nationals optioned right-handed reliever Orlando Ribalta to Triple-A Rochester on Friday prior to Washington's series opener vs. San Francisco at Nationals Park.
The move freed up a spot on the active roster for lefty reliever Richard Lovelady, whom the Nats reacquired from the Mets on Thursday.
Just the night prior, Ribalta earned his first career save, shutting down the Pirates in the bottom of the 10th inning of the Nationals’ 8-7 win. The Nationals understood the gravity of that accomplishment, and rather than make the roster move postgame, they gave Ribalta the chance to celebrate with his team and return to Washington.
It was an uneventful two-appearance callup for Ribalta, who was recalled on Monday for Washington’s four-game series in Pittsburgh. But uneventful is exactly what a reliever wants. Ribalta was the lone Nats arm to silence the Pirates in the series opener, tossing a perfect seventh inning. He followed that up in the series finale with a one-hit, one-strikeout 10th inning -- and of course, that save.
“I couldn’t have been prouder with what he did for us those two games in Pittsburgh,” manager Blake Butera said pregame Friday. “And especially yesterday, coming in that huge spot and getting his first save and having a lot of fun -- it’s part of why we didn’t do it after the game yesterday, we wanted him to enjoy that moment.”
The Nationals will have plenty of use for Ribalta as the season progresses, but for the time being it makes more sense to have the reliever -- who had Minor League options available -- getting reps at Triple-A while utilizing the more veteran arms like Lovelady in the Majors.
“I almost apologized to [Orlando],” Butera said, “because it’s really difficult. But I think, when you sit back and look at it -- when we talk about it as a staff … as weird as it sounds, we want to get to a place where we’re sending really good pitchers down. If this wasn’t hard, it’d be like, ‘Oh man, we must not be very good.’
“But sending Ribalta down is really tough because of the job that he did, but he was -- that was the right person to do this with, right now, in this moment. And we told him, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll be up here sooner rather than later.’”