Stephen Strasburg gets it done with win over Reds
Right-hander Stephen Strasburg was solid for 5 2/3 innings and that was good enough for the Nationals to defeat the Reds, 8-5, in front of a sellout crowd of 37,868 at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday night.
It was clear early on that Strasburg wasn’t going to be distracted or bothered by the small ballpark, which has developed a reputation for intimidating pitchers in the past. Strasburg shrugged his shoulders and calmly said he was used to ballparks like the one in Cincinnati.
"You should have seen the fields that I was playing at in college," Strasburg said. "I played on a field that was smaller than this. I have experienced this before. As long as you execute pitches, it doesn't matter where you hit it, as long as it's on the ground. If they hit it out, so what?"
Although Strasburg gave up three runs on seven hits, he did not allow a home run which left his coaches happy with his performance and his fifth career victory.
"I saw a lot of good things out of him," said outfielder Jonny Gomes. "One of the things you want to see out of a young guy is his composure. He got himself into some jams and went right to his best stuff and got out of it.
Strasburg put the Nationals in a tight spot early on, allowing one run to score in the third, when Orlando Cabrera drove in Brandon Phillips with a single to left field, giving Cincinnati a 1-0 lead. This was the only run that he allowed during the first five innings.
"When you got a guy who throws 100 miles per hour, the majority of the time his offspeed is to get you off his fastball. He'll elevate it or bury it. He was throwing his curveball and changeup for strikes,” said Gomes.
But the tides quickly turned in the following innings and that 1-0 lead did not hold up for very long. The Nationals gave Strasburg a 7-1 lead by the top of the sixth inning.
Roger Bernadina opened the onslaught for the Nationals with a sacrifice fly that scored Adam Dunn to tie the game at 1.
An inning later, Cristian Guzman hit a two-run homer to give Washington a lead that they would not relinquish. "I was just trying to find the ball and make good contact," Guzman said. "Not everyone is a home run hitter."
Washington proceeded to score four more runs in that inning with Ian Desmond and Nyjer Morgan both driving in two runs apiece with singles. "When Strasburg pitches, we elevate our game. We have to because he is our horse," outfielder Willie Harris said. "Early in the year, we were not scoring runs for him. We have to score runs for him, and we know he is going to keep it right there."
The Reds tried to turn their fortunes around and swing momentum in their favor in the bottom of the sixth after the Nationals’ offence came alive. Miguel Cairo singled to center field to drive in two runs. Manager Jim Riggleman then came out of the dugout and had a conversation with Strasburg before taking him out of the game.
Riggleman told Strasburg that if he had to do it over again, he would have allowed him to pitch from the windup instead of the stretch. Strasburg agreed that he should have pitched differently to Cairo.
"There are always things to look back on and there may be things you want to do differently, but the bottom line is that we got the win tonight," Strasburg said. "That's what we were trying to do."
By the time Strasburg left the game, the Nationals had already a commanding lead in the game and despite adding runs in the seventh and eighth it was all for nothing. Willie Harris added some insurance with a solo homer in the ninth.
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