by Koda Glover took the mound on Friday night in Turner Field with one on and one out in the eighth and the Washington Nationals up 6-4 on the Atlanta Braves.
“Boy, then Koda [Glover], I didn’t have [Oliver] Perez today and I didn’t have [Shawn] Kelley today, so we called upon the young man, Koda, he has an electric fastball, but he was facing a very good hitter in Freddie Freeman and you know, I don’t like to see Freddie up there any time.” said Nationals skipper Dusty Baker.
“Fortunately for us, Koda got out of that inning and then we had some guys get on in the ninth,” Baker said, “and then Big Clint came through with the clutch, clutch hit.
“Well, first it started out, Big Ramos got the hit to force them to be in the stretch, which is what you want.”
Glover was the pitcher of record when Robinson drove in the go-ahead run, so he got his first major league win after being charged with a blown save.
Baker said he was impressed with the way the right-hander maintained his composure after the Braves rallied to tie it.
“The thing about it is,” Baker explained, “when you give it up, then you’ve got to forget about that and bear down and get the next hitter, because you can’t do anything about what’s already happened. That was very mature of him. And you know he’s not scared. This guy is a warrior. He’s brave.”
It was a learning experience for Glover, and a good opportunity for Baker to see how his reliever reacted to adversity.
“Every time you send a young guy out there you’re finding out about him,” he said.
“And that wasn’t my thought process, my thought process was for him to get out of that and give us a chance to win the ballgame. Like I said, he’s not afraid, it just hurt that we didn’t have Kelley or Perez, and hopefully we’ll have them back tomorrow.
