Nats won't wait until last minute to make decision on Strasburg

LOS ANGELES - The Nationals don't know yet if Stephen Strasburg will be able to make his next scheduled start, but they don't intend to wait til the last minute to make a decision the way they did Monday night when they scratched the right-hander about 90 minutes before first pitch with an upper back strain.

For now, the Nationals are hoping Strasburg will be able to go Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, slotting back into his original spot in the rotation. But for that to happen, they'll likely need to know he's good to go in the next couple of days.

In other words, don't expect a game-time decision this time.

"We wouldn't want to do it like that," manager Dusty Baker said. "If it was going to happen like that, who knows what we'd have to do. But we don't want to take it up to ... I don't know, I don't want to start speculating. But we've got five days to come up with it."

Strasburg and the Nationals were cautiously optimistic Monday night that the injury isn't serious. The pitcher hurt himself Saturday in San Diego doing weight training, but he didn't think at the time it was bad enough to keep him from starting as planned in Los Angeles.

Two days' worth of treatment, though, weren't enough to convince Strasburg and the club he could take the mound at Dodger Stadium without risking further injury. The fact he tried to pitch through a minor ankle injury early last season and wound up throwing off his mechanics to the point he landed on the disabled list with a strained neck also weighed on Strasburg's mind this time around.

"I just don't want to make the same mistake I made last year and have it become a long-term thing," he said after Monday's game. "I just want to nip it in the bud and get ready for the next one."

If for some reason Strasburg can't pitch Sunday, the Nationals would have to decide who would start in his place: Yusmeiro Petit, who filled in admirably on short notice Monday night, or someone from their farm system.

Petit threw 94 pitches over six innings, so he probably won't be available again until the weekend anyway. In the meantime, the Nationals hope the rest of their bullpen is rested enough to get them through the rest of this series before a day off Thursday in advance of their series against the Brewers.

Petit's ability to churn out those innings in a 4-1 loss helped salvage the situation.

"This way, we don't have to make any moves or roster changes," Baker said. "We have almost a full bullpen. That was huge. Even though we lost the game, sometimes bullpen preservation is the key. To a man, everybody appreciated what he did yesterday."