PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Tony Sipp always felt like he did not need the full six weeks after pitchers and catchers reported to camp, since he could get ready for the regular season quickly. Well, it’s time to put that theory to the test.

Sipp officially joined the Nationals in camp Thursday, and he hit the ground running with a 35-pitch bullpen session. And with less than two weeks before Opening Day, he is optimistic he can be ready to break camp with the team.

“This is definitely uncharted territory for me,” Sipp said Friday. “I’ve always felt like Spring Training is too long, and now it's put up or shut up because I've been screaming this for a long time."

Sipp, 35, began throwing in January from his home in Missouri City, Texas, and said he is up to about two bullpen sessions a week. He thinks his arm is ready, but he has yet to face live batters, which he acknowledged will change the intensity of his outing.

While Sipp is ready to welcome the challenge of preparing for the season on a condensed schedule, the Nationals are unlikely to rush him.

“My biggest thing with him, and I talked to him yesterday, is as much as we want you for Opening Day, you missed significant time in Spring Training,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “So hopefully you're ready, but if you’re not, you’re not. We want you to be fully ready, so if it takes you an extra three or four appearances down here, so be it. I want to make sure you get off to a good start, and you get off healthy.”

Sipp became the eighth free-agent addition for the Nationals during their roster overhaul this winter, entering a bullpen in need of another left-handed reliever to complement closer Sean Doolittle and Matt Grace. Martinez said he planned to use Sipp in high-leverage situations against lefties, which there should be plenty of considering the competition within the division.

“I’m definitely welcoming it,” Sipp said. “I think I do my best work under pressure. I've been around a while. I know the task at hand, it's just moreso getting focused and just being prepared for that opportunity.”

After struggling the two previous years in Houston, Sipp had an excellent bounce-back season in 2018, with a 1.86 ERA in 54 appearances while holding lefties to a minuscule .191/.263/.294 slash line in 76 plate appearances. He credited that resurgence to two factors. First, he had a better feel for his split-finger fastball —“without that, I want to say I was naked out there,” he said. And he was challenged by his throwing partner, Astros reliever Will Harris, who said he saw a drop in intensity from Sipp.

“You just look in the mirror,” Sipp said. “If someone tells you, 'You're not intense,' it's almost like they are telling you, 'You're not trying.' So, it's just like going out there and just gearing up and making sure that you go out and treat every pitch like it might be your last. You know, going out there with that mentality, I think it helped a lot."

Hellickson ditches slider

Jeremy Hellickson’s experiment with throwing a slider is over. He did not throw any during his 71-pitch outing in Friday’s 11-3 victory against the Mets, during which he gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits with five strikeouts over five innings.

Hellickson had considered using the slider as a strikeout pitch this spring to go along with his changeup, but he never felt comfortable enough throwing it. Instead, he plans to start throwing more cutters to right-handers, and he got Wilson Ramos to bounce into a double play with one of them.

“Just the one grip will be better for me instead of trying to throw five different pitches,” Hellickson said.

Up next

Max Scherzer is back on the mound Saturday afternoon when the Nationals host the Cardinals at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches at 1:05 p.m. ET. This will be Scherzer’s fifth start of the spring as he marches toward an Opening Day showdown with the Mets. He has 13 strikeouts and three walks and has given up nine earned runs in 13 2/3 innings so far in the Grapefruit League.