Nationals rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg continues to do his part even as his teammates are still struggling to give him some support.
The 21-year-old right-hander gave up just one run to the Kansas City Royals in six innings on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, that was one too many.
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Brian Bannister matched Strasburg pitch for pitch and Kansas City benefited from a dubious call in its favor by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt during a 1-0 victory at Nationals Park.
Bannister pitched six shutout innings and allowed just five hits. Meanwhile, Wendelstedt ruled Nats baserunner Roger Bernadina out at home plate in the bottom of the sixth inning after a single to right field by Adam Dunn. The call appeared incorrect on television replays with Bernadina sliding in feet first ahead of right fielder Jose Guillen’s bullet throw. Josh Willingham then struck out looking, stranding runners at first and third. Washington put just one runner on base in the final three innings. Bernadina was stranded at second base with two outs in the eighth inning.
“It [is] definitely frustrating because you want to score,” Bernadina said. “We’re down by one. If we tie the game it will probably be a different game. We kept fighting as a team, but things didn’t turn out well today.”
Strasburg did allow nine hits in his six innings of work. But few of those were hit hard. He also struck out nine batters and walked none. With 41 strikeouts so far, Strasburg has set a major-league record for most strikeouts in a rookie’s first four starts.
Kansas City scored its lone run on a two-out single by Guillen in the fifth inning. Washington (33-40) has now scored 10 runs total in its last six games and been shut out twice.
“They’re really trying hard out there,” Strasburg said of the Nats’ offense. “I know there’s going to be times when it’s going to be like this in the future. And there’s going to be times where I’m just not pitching well at all and they go out there and score a ton of runs and save me. It’s baseball.”
