Strasburg again leads the way in much-needed win (updated)

Max Scherzer was trying to get his upper back healthy enough to pitch again. Davey Martinez and Adam Eaton were fuming in the clubhouse after getting ejected in the bottom of the first. Matt Adams was in the trainer's room getting his injured right foot treated.

The Nationals were missing plenty this afternoon as they faced the very real prospect of a weekend sweep at the hands of the Dodgers, and their first four-game losing streak since May. But they had something their vaunted opponents did not have today: They had Stephen Strasburg on the mound. And right now, there are few surer things in baseball.

In his latest performance during a month of excellence, Strasburg held the Dodgers to one run and two hits over seven superb innings while also driving in another run to lead the Nationals to an 11-4 rout in a game that turned lopsided late, thanks to a barrage of opposite-field hits by his teammates.

"Huge. Huge," Martinez said. "We lose the first two games against the Dodgers, all of a sudden he comes in on a Sunday day game, hot, and he does what he does against a very good opposing team, a very good pitcher. I can't say enough about what Stephen means to this organization and our ballclub."

Strasburg led the way on a day when so many good things happened for the home team, but the early departure of Adams put something of a damper on the affair. The veteran slugger took a slider off his right foot in the bottom of the second, and though he stayed in the game after limping down the line, he eventually was removed after unsuccessfully trying to score from first base on Brian Dozier's double to left.

Martinez said initial X-rays of Adams' foot were inconclusive because of too much swelling, so he'll need another Monday morning. The Nationals, already without starting first baseman Ryan Zimmerman due to a foot injury, will wait anxiously for today's results.

"I hope it's just something like he has a contusion, and in a few days he'll feel better," Martinez said. "But we'll see. If it was broke, I think he would've known it once it hit him and he couldn't stand on it. But I'm not a doctor, nor do I claim to read X-rays or anything like that."

The Nationals did just fine without Adams' bat today, getting a string of big hits from nearly every spot in the lineup to score seven runs off Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, then another four off reliever Jaime Schultz. But this was a tight contest for most of the afternoon. And that made Strasburg's performance all the more significant.

While Scherzer desperately tries to return from his strained rhombus muscle in time to face the Braves this week - Martinez admitted he's "very doubtful" the ace will be able to do it - Strasburg continues to serve as the Nationals' most consistent starter. He has now won a career-high seven starts in a row, and over his last five he sports a 1.14 ERA, 44 strikeouts and only seven walks.

"I think his stuff should be illegal," said center fielder Victor Robles, "because it's so good."

What has allowed Strasburg (first in the league with 14 wins, third in the league with 140 2/3 innings and 168 strikeouts) to remain so effective while never missing a start to date this season?

"Mechanically, some of the stuff I've been working on with (pitching coach Paul Menhart) in bullpen sessions, the repeatability part of it," he said. "Just getting in a good training program and just listening to the body and not trying to beat a dead horse when you need a little extra rest."

Strasburg also again proved he's perfectly capable of succeeding in the heat and humidity, further erasing the narrative that plagued him earlier in his career. This was his 21st career start with a gametime temperature of 90 degrees or higher. He's now 9-5 with a 3.57 ERA and has allowed two or fewer earned runs in 13 of those starts.

Emotions ran hotter than today's temperature, especially early on from the Nationals' perspective. Frustrated with the strike zone all weekend - especially the top of the zone - Eaton was so aghast when Jeremie Rehak called a 3-1 fastball at his armpits a strike in the bottom of the first that he jogged halfway down the line before turning around and coming back to the plate.

Bad call or not, that show-up surely didn't sit well with Rehak. Nor did whatever Eaton said after striking out on the next pitch, because the plate umpire quickly ejected him.

"Once the next pitch came, I just told him: That was on him," Eaton said. "That at-bat was on him. That's my own personal opinion. I still have my bat in my hand, yes. But it just felt like that pitch was up. And then we had a misunderstanding. I think he believed I said something that I didn't, and I think that's why he threw me out as I was walking away. I think he heard something that I didn't say."

Whatever was said, the Eaton ejection brought Martinez storming out of the dugout for his most animated argument in months, leading to his own ejection.

"I've always said I don't like arguing about balls and strikes, but I'm going to go protect my players," the manager said. "Adam turned around, and that's what really ignited everything. He was walking away, and he started coming after him. So that was my cue. I think it had a lot to do with the way things happened over the last few days. I question some of the calls. They do their job. I'm not ever going to say anything during the games and stuff. But after a while, enough is enough."

It was Martinez's third ejection of the season, his first since May 23 in New York, best remembered as the day the Nationals were swept by the Mets to fall to 19-31. The following day, they began their torrid climb back up the standings, entering today's contest with a 36-18 record since that afternoon in Flushing.

Who knows what effect Martinez's ejection that day had on his team, and who knows what effect today's show had on anything. But whatever their motivation, the Nationals played hard and played with emotion today, and they were rewarded for it.

Strasburg set the tone from the get-go, retiring the first 13 batters he faced from this vaunted lineup, five via strikeout. He finally relented in the top of the fifth, allowing a pair of doubles to A.J. Pollock and Matt Beaty to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. But he battled right back and struck out the side in the top of the sixth, prompting some consternation from a couple of L.A. batters and manager Dave Roberts toward Rehak ... but no ejections.

"It feels like his fastball is moving more than ever," Dozier said. "He gave those last left-handed hitters, throw it right at the hip, make it run back to the inside part of the plate. When you have that going with the changeup that's obviously really good, it makes a tough day for the opponents."

The Nationals finally delivered at the plate in the fifth and sixth innings to support their starter. And they did so by doing something their manager - whether in the dugout or back in his office - has been preaching all season: Hitting the ball the other way.

The Nats produced seven hits in those two innings. All went to the opposite field. The barrage included Dozier's two-run homer to right-center. It included Robles' triple down the right field line. It included a pair of two-out RBI singles by Anthony Rendon. And it included a bases-loaded single by Strasburg, the latest in the pitcher's flurry of big hits.

Strasburg is now 5 for his last 8. He has struck out only once in his last 26 plate appearances. And he has more RBIs (six) than earned runs allowed (four) this month.

"It's better to be lucky than good sometimes," he said, shrugging.

The right-hander, of course, makes his money pitching the ball, not hitting it. And today he was at his best when he was on the mound.

And in the process, he lifted his team to a win that was needed as much as any they've had in a while.