You can take away Jayson Werth (broken left wrist). You can deal with a nagging injury to slugger Michael Morse (strained right lat muscle.). Ryan Zimmerman (shoulder) was missed when he was on the disabled list, but it was only for a short stint. Even with both closers – Drew Storen (elbow), Brad Lidge (oblique) – out there is enough depth in the bullpen to make up for it. Okay, losing catcher Wilson Ramos (torn knee ligaments) for the season hurts.
But every Nats player coach, team executive and fan’s heart stops cold when the issue is arm soreness for ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg. After losing him for an entire season thanks to Tommy John surgery in September, 2010 that’s something no one associated with the organization wants to go through again.
Strasburg pitched five innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, an eventual 9-3 win. He struck out eight batters and walked just one. He gave up one earned run, three total, on four hits. Typical outing. Except that he was fighting soreness in his right biceps, especially early in the game. Once manager Davey Johnson found that out after the fifth inning, he pulled Strasburg from the game. Strasburg was at 90 pitches anyway so he likely wouldn’t have lasted very long into the sixth inning. Still – better safe than sorry when it comes to Washington’s biggest asset.
“It wasn’t my biceps. It had nothing to do with the elbow or anything. It was just normal fatigue,” Strasburg insisted afterwards. “Like I said, I think a lot of it had to do with throwing a little bit too much in between [starts] and kind of pushing myself to kind of get back on track. I just got to remember that it’s a long season and that I can’t over prepare for the next start because I pitched bad in the previous one. It’s part of the game and I need to go out there and keep everything the same. But everything feels great. Just glad that I was able to go out there and give five innings and come up with a couple clutch hits.”
But Johnson was definitive that it was biceps soreness that Strasburg complained about. And if it was no big deal, he still was concerned enough to have team doctor Wiemi Douoguih examine him. Strasburg maintained that he was feeling general soreness all over his body after working a little too hard following a rough start – by his own lofty standards – last Tuesday against San Diego. Strasburg threw 50 pitches in the first two innings alone against the Orioles on Sunday. The muscle continued to get tighter, Johnson said he was told, before loosening up later in the afternoon. That was obvious given that Strasburg struck out seven of the final 10 batters he faced without allowing a runner to reach base after the second inning.
“I talked to [Strasburg] later in the game and he said it relaxed a little bit. So I’m not as concerned when I hear it’s in the biceps,” Johnson said. “That’s generally when you have tightness that comes from throwing a lot of pitches in an inning, kind of borderline being a little tired.”
Strasburg contributed in other ways, too, with a single in the third inning that began a three-run rally and allowed Washington to tie the game after falling behind 3-0. He then hit his first career home run in the fourth inning, a solid blast that cleared the wall in left field and earned himself a curtain call from the big crowd at Nationals Park.
After an offseason working in the batting cage with a friend back home in San Diego, Strasburg is feeling more comfortable at the plate. He’d already smacked four doubles. But his arm is the money maker here and the Nats weren’t taking any chances – even if Johnson was miffed it took Strasburg until after the fifth to say something. Television cameras definitely caught him shaking his right arm, at times, too.
“It just didn’t feel like [the ball] was coming out the way it usually does. I think that might have been the reason why I felt like I was almost over-throwing a little bit early,” Strasburg said. “Because it just didn’t feel like it was jumping out of my hand the way it normally does. I was cutting a couple balls and once I see myself cutting then I feel like I’m trying to generate too much. And sure enough, when I decided to slow down a little bit the velocity came back and the location came back, too.”
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