WASHINGTON -- Lipstick or no lipstick, a pig is still a pig. And right now, the Washington Nationals' bullpen, which coughed up a 4-2 loss Thursday, is 100 percent USDA pork.
Wednesday night, when manager Dusty Baker revealed Koda Glover would be his team’s closer going forward, it seemed like major progress. Even though the Nationals entered Thursday with a stranglehold on the NL East (7.5 games up on second-place Atlanta), their early success has come in spite of a bullpen that has been among the worst in baseball. Entering Thursday’s series finale against a struggling Mariners squad, Washington relievers ranked last in the majors in ERA (5.