Stephen Strasburg leads Nationals over Braves in return to mound

WASHINGTON — Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg waited 25 days to make his return from neck tightness that forced him to the disabled list last month.

Then, he had to wait two more hours as inclement weather delayed his start against the Braves on Tuesday.

But when he finally got a chance to take the hill for the first time since May 29 — when he left a start against Cincinnati in the second inning — he pitched five scoreless innings in a 3-1 win over Atlanta at Nationals Park.

Strasburg scattered four hits and a walk while striking out six and throwing 94 pitches (64 strikes). Nationals manager Matt Williams set a 95-pitch target for Strasburg before the game, so after five innings he replaced his starter with Tanner Roark.

"Tonight he had some limitations, but next time out he won't have any," Williams said. "So we got him to his pitch count, he got through that last inning fine and next time out he'll be good to go. I thought he pitched well."

Anthony Rendon, who went 4-for-4 on the night, gave Strasburg an early lead with an RBI single in the first inning. When Strasburg left, he was ahead 3-0, and the combination of Roark, Matt Thornton, David Carpenter and finally closer Drew Storen totaled four innings with one earned run, finishing off the series opener for the Nationals.

Before the game, Williams said he hoped Strasburg would start off with his fastball down in the zone, then reach back for a high heater later in the count. It didn't take long for the right-hander to get down to his game plan.

He struck out the game's second hitter, Cameron Maybin, with a 97 mile-per-hour fastball. Most of his six punch-outs came on his fastball, which sat at 96 and touched 98.

"All this time I've been working on the mechanics and working on fine-tuning things, but when you go out there between the lines, it's go out there and compete," Strasburg said. "So I wasn't going to think about mechanics at all, I was just going to go out there and give it everything I had."

Strasburg allowed singles in the first, second and fourth innings but stranded them at first. His first jam came in the fifth inning, when he walked Atlanta pitcher Alex Wood after a one-out double by Eury Perez. But he worked out of it by striking out Peterson for the second time and inducing a groundout from Maybin to end his outing.

"He ran into a little bit of trouble, but other than that he was throwing it where he wanted to," Williams said. "He understands how to get out of innings. He's been there before. He could reach back a little bit tonight for his fastball. He used that a lot in the last inning to get out of it."

Strasburg, who was struggling before he went on the disabled list, is now 4-5 with a 5.90 earned-run average in 11 starts this season.

"Sometimes you just gotta take a step back to realize how bad it was," Strasburg said. "Once I did, I was able to get back to what my body was supposed to feel like instead of just trying to mentally grind through it. I feel a lot stronger, and it feels a lot more consistent now."

He was reinstated from the disabled list before the game as the Nationals sent down right-hander Joe Ross — who was 2-1 with a 2.66 ERA in three starts filling in for Strasburg — to triple-A Syracuse.

Dating back to Ross' start Friday against Pittsburgh, Washington's starters have now pitched 26.1 consecutive scoreless innings after Strasburg's start Tuesday. Right-hander Jordan Zimmermann will try to continue the streak tomorrow night.

"Everybody's competitive, so they're no different than anybody else," Williams said of his starters. "In and of their own game, though, they're going out there to put zeroes up, and they've done a fine job of it lately. … They're in the swing of their seasons now. They're finding their strides."

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