Stephen Strasburg Dominant in Third Start
By Editorial Staff
Stephen Strasburg continued his impressive return for the Washington Nationals last night, holding the Florida Marlins to 1 run over 6 strong innings.
Strasburg, making his 3rd start of the season, dominated the Marlins. Over his 6 innings of work, Strasburg allowed 4 hits, striking out 3 while walking none. Strasburg has yet to offer up a free pass since rejoining the Nationals.
It wasn’t until the 3rd inning that Florida finally managed to break through against Strasburg. Chris Volstad, Strasburg’s counterpart, helped his own cause, doubling to deep right center field. It was the first and only extra base hit registered against Strasburg.
After being sacrificed to third, Volstad scored on an Omar Infante sac fly. It was only the second earned run scored against Strasburg this season.
Strasburg went on to face the minimum over his final 3 frames, making it through 6 innings in only 61 pitches.
The only thing that stopped Strasburg yesterday was the pitch count the Nationals had imposed on the right-hander. Washington wanted to keep Strasburg south of 70 throws on the day, and manager Davey Johnson had shown that he doesn’t like taking his phenom out in the middle of innings. For this reason, Strasburg was pulled after the 6th.
Throughout the night, Strasburg’s fastball was consistently sitting in the high 90’s. 45 of the 61 pitches Strasburg threw were for strikes.
Meeting with reporters after the game, Strasburg said that he was happy to last longer than he did in his previous outing. While he was undoubtedly frustrated to leave his dominant performance after so few pitches, Strasburg admitted that he’s OK with going “out until they tell me I’m done”.
Combined over his three starts, Strasburg has completed 14 innings in which he’s surrendered only 2 earned runs on 9 hits. Strasburg’s struck out 11 batters while maintaining an ERA and WHIP of 1.29 and 0.64. Opposing hitters have only mustered a .188 batting average against Strasburg.
The Nationals will stick with their routine of only starting Strasburg at home, and his next and likely final appearance is scheduled for next Friday versus the Atlanta Braves.
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