Strasburg and Span after 4-0 win over the Phillies

Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg appeared in control throughout, tossing seven scoreless innings in a 4-0 shutout of the Phillies. Strasburg allowed just three hits, one walk and struck out 10 batters. It was the first time he struck out 10 or more hitters since his June 4 win over the Phillies (11). "Yeah, just trying to get better, working on some things with (pitching coach Steve McCatty) in the bullpen," Strasburg said. "Just getting more comfortable." What did you work on with McCatty? "That's between me and him. There's got to be a line," Strasburg said. "It's something that I'm going to keep going out there and keep doing the little things, hopefully keep going in the right direction. "Felt like I had a pretty good feel for it in the 'pen. Really felt like I could really command it to both sides of the plate today." Is this then the approach of how you were going to go after the hitters or more of a mechanical thing? "Both," he said. "Just trying to get more consistent with all my pitches, locate them a little bit better. When you can do that, it's easier to execute the game plan." Strasburg said having command of both his fastball and his breaking pitches made the difference in the win. "You are not going to always have that," he said. "You really just got to do your best to pound the strike zone with the fastball. Get that going early, get the feel for that. Hopefully all your other pitches fall into place." Center fielder Denard Span had a good vantage point to watch Strasburg's location. "It was very impressive. He had his breaking ball going," Span said. "He had his split finger changeup was going. He had hitters guessing. Just seemed like none of their hitters were comfortable in the box. He threw his fastball inside and out. I think that was a key to what he was doing today."' Span said Strasburg coming in on hitters was the deciding factor. "For me the biggest thing is just him pitching inside. He didn't pitch inside too often (in recent starts). Today he was hitting his spots inside." There was a delay when they tried to pick off Cody Asche in the fifth, but Strasburg didn't let it mess up his rhythm. The call stood that Asche was safe, so Strasburg had to go back out and still get the third out. He did. "It can be (frustrating) but I'm just going into it thinking that if they call him safe, he's safe," Strasburg said. "And if they call him out, then he's safe. Just prepare for that you are not going to be out of the inning. As soon as you think you're out of it some weird call happens and you got to get your mind back in it. Just got to keep focused." Span got the offense started again, this time in the third with a RBI single off of Cole Hamels. "I think I was down in the count, with 1-2 I believe, just wanted to make sure I was ready for a fastball," Span said. "Looked at the replay, the pitch was way inside. I was able to stay inside of it and it was able to drop through for me." Span has been doing exactly what you would expect from a leadoff hitter, getting on base. He has reached base safely in 29 straight games. "My approach right now is to try to stay up the middle, no matter who's pitching. Keep my hands inside the ball," Span said. "For me to be able to keep my hands inside of a pitch that was way inside, definitely a good sign." Is he having a better season than last year? "We still got a lot of baseball. It's still too early for me to say whether or not this year is better than last year. We still got 50 or so games left. Too early for that to give you an answer." Span stole two bases, now with 23 on the season, second best total of his career. His career best is 26 thefts in 2010. He told us earlier in the season he would like to get to 30. "This is something I have been working on since the day I got drafted at 18. I probably feel the slowest I have ever felt in my career, just for getting older. I've worked hard. (First base coach) Tony Tarasco has been in my ear since spring training started. Before every game he's giving me something on that pitcher just to get me ready. It's just been a joy to see my hard work translate onto the field." I feel like, I'm not going to say Billy Hamilton numbers or Dee Gordon numbers but there's no reason why. I don't know. I'll answer that at the end of the season. We'll have to see how many I'm going to get this year."