Mike Rizzo made his weekly appearance with Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday, and as he has all season, the Nationals GM defended Manager Matt Williams in the face of scrutiny about his bullpen management. Earlier in the day, Williams defended his decision to go with Casey Janssen instead of Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning of a tie game on Tuesday.

Rouhier asked Rizzo if he thinks Papelbon has been used enough since he was acquired at the trade deadline.

“Well, he’s pitched in the situations that he pitches in,” Rizzo said. “He’s one of the consummate closers in the game, and when the ninth inning comes and he’s on the mound, I feel really, really good about it. There just hasn’t been a lot of opportunities for him to do what he does, and that’s to close out games and save games and be there when the last out of the game is made. … There hasn’t been enough opportunities, to my liking, for him to pitch more often, but opportunities when he has pitched, he’s pitched extremely well for us, like we thought he would.”

[Fancy Stats: Williams is mishandling the Nats’ bullpen]

Paulsen followed up by asking Rizzo whether he agreed with Williams’ decision to pitch Janssen for a second consecutive night in Tuesday’s ninth inning instead of calling upon Papelbon to face the heart of the Cardinals’ order. Sure, Papelbon is the Nationals’ closer, but there’s no lead for him to protect if Janssen gives up a run (or three) as he did Tuesday.

“We’re 55-5 when we have the lead after seven innings, we’re 43-2 when we have a two-run lead after seven innings, so Matt Williams did a masterful job last night, in my mind, putting people in a position to succeed,” Rizzo said. “The sixth and seventh inning that Matt managed was unbelievably well-crafted. He got us to the point where he pushed all the right buttons, put in the lefties for the lefties, got the matchup he wanted and in a real tough situation brought in Blake Treinen because he’s a ground ball pitcher and you’re trying to induce the double-play ball.”

Treinen got Jhonny Peralta to hit into an inning-ending double play to preserve the Nationals’ one-run lead after six innings and Felipe Rivero worked a perfect seventh after the Nationals added an insurance run.

“We go into the eighth inning with our two studs on the mound, [Drew] Storen and Papelbon, ready to take the eighth inning on, the ninth inning on and we go home,” Rizzo continued. “We’re 43-2 in those instances. So, put guys in position to succeed, hey, it’s baseball, it happens, guys don’t succeed all the time. Mariano Rivera gave up the game-winning hit in the 2001 World Series, I always say that. If he can fail, anybody can fail in the bullpen, and we just didn’t get it done. There was ample opportunity to score more runs, there was ample opportunities to make plays defensively that we didn’t make, some bad decisions, and we lost to a really, really good baseball team. But, as far as putting guys in position to succeed, that was done. I thought he did a great job of getting us to the eighth inning with a two-run lead. That’s where we want to be. If we’re there tonight again, the eighth inning with a two-run lead, I’ll be extremely happy and feel extremely good about it, and that’s the way we constructed the team and this bullpen, and that’s how we’re going to run with it.”

[Two leads, two collapses and what they might mean for 2016]

Rizzo took issue with the criticism Williams faced Monday for not using Storen late in a close game, despite the fact that Storen told Williams he was unavailable.

“No one asked the question and he gets ripped for not using a player that is unavailable to pitch that day, so there’s a lot of information that goes into these things, and there’s a lot of stuff that is known by the ballclub and not by the general public, and that’s the way it should be,” Rizzo said. “And that’s fine. Critiquing the manager, that’s what this thing’s all about. We’re all arm-chair managers and Monday morning quarterbacks and that type of thing, and that’s what makes the game so beautiful, is that we can follow along and manage with him.”

When asked whether he endorses the idea that closers, such as Papelbon, should only pitch in the ninth inning, no matter the situation (or deficit in the National League East standings), Rizzo noted that Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny faces the same criticisms despite owning the best record in baseball.

“Managers have to manage according to what they have with the ballclub that night,” Rizzo said. “That night is the key component to each and any question, is who’s available that night, who’s pitching well, how many times has a guy been up, is he available to pitch, is he pitching strong, is the matchup good and that type of thing, and I don’t think there’s a hard and fast way, by the book of managing A, B, C, D. No. I think Matt showed that last night. … I thought he did a masterful job of getting us to a point of putting his people in a position to succeed and we just didn’t get it done.”