HOUSTON -- With his emergence as one of manager Dusty Baker¡¯s key bullpen weapons this year, left-hander Brooks Raley turned to Nationals pitcher Will Harris -- formerly of the Astros -- to get some advice on the proper mindset to have with the game on the line.

Raley, who has been a starter for much of his career, sought help from teammate Joe Smith and asked him to hook him up with Harris, a bullpen stalwart with the Astros from 2015-19. Harris had a 2.36 ERA and 0.987 WHIP in 309 games with Houston.

¡°He had a lot success doing it and did it often,¡± Raley said. ¡°I was like, ¡®You think I can reach out to Will and talk through all that?¡¯ And [Smith] said, ¡®Absolutely.¡¯ I called him a few weeks back and started going through that role and how he made adjustments.¡±

Harris talked to Raley about coming into a game in the middle of an inning with guys on base and how important it is to know matchups and who¡¯s on deck. He said if you have guys on first and second base and one out, you can give up a hit, but you have to try to strike out one of the next two batters and try and play for that last out.

¡°Some of the things he said, I¡¯ve thought about some of those things but never fully processed what that situation fully entailed and how much you¡¯re just playing against the odds and trying to get them a little more in your favor,¡± Raley said.

Raley also talked to Harris about his cutter usage. Raley has thrown his cutter 39.8 percent of his pitches this year, and it¡¯s a weapon for him against right-handers. Harris¡¯ cutter was his signature pitch through much of his time with the Astros.

¡°I was like, ¡®Hey man, I kind of have had some tough luck this year with a couple of flairs falling in in some tough spots late in the game,¡¯¡± Raley said. ¡°He said, ¡®If you¡¯re going to throw cutters, it¡¯s part of it. Just look at me, I¡¯ve had a lot of those.¡¯ He was like, ¡®Just understand it¡¯s going to take three of those to beat you, so pound the zone. I always went with the approach of being really aggressive with my stuff.¡¯¡±

As a former starter, Raley said he knows how important it is to strand runners on base when you¡¯re a reliever.

¡°I grew up as a starter, so you know when you come into a game and relieve someone, you¡¯re really rooting for him and you want him to get through it,¡± he said. ¡°You always want those guys to care. Now I¡¯m that guy, having been that starter and trying to stop that and preserve the win and pitch in that role, it¡¯s such a cool role to pitch in. You want to be successful. It was cool to pick his brain.¡±

Raley had posted a 1.23 ERA in his previous nine appearances prior to Tuesday¡¯s game, and a 3.00 ERA in 17 outings since May 10. Lefties have a .214 batting average against him, and he has struck out 37 batters in 27 2/3 innings overall this year.