Strasburg dominates as Nats sweep five from Phillies

We don't know yet when Stephen Strasburg will make his next start for the Nationals. Or his first career relief appearance. Or perhaps whether he'll take the mound again in 2019 at all.

That dilemma will be resolved in the coming days by Davey Martinez and his coaching staff, not to mention the Nationals players who take the field Tuesday night in the National League wild card game and determine whether this wild season is extended to at least 166 games instead of only 163.

For now, let's just sit back and marvel at what Strasburg did over the last six months, because if it's not the best regular season of his career it's awfully close.

With six more dominant innings today during a 6-3 victory, Strasburg not only led the Nats (90-69) to an unprecedented five-game sweep of the Phillies. And he not only maintained his team's one-game lead over a Brewers team that never seems to lose any more for home-field advantage in the wild card game, unless Milwaukee (89-70) catches St. Louis (90-69) this weekend and captures the National League Central title.

No, Strasburg put one final flourish on a standout season, one that proved he could take the ball every fifth day and not simply pitch but pitch exceptionally well, straight through the finish line.

"I obviously worked really hard last offseason," said Strasburg, who made only 22 starts in 2018 due to injury and posted a career-worst 3.74 ERA. "I wasn't really satisfied with the way last season ended up. I think it's just part of the process of learning more about yourself and learning how to take care of your body better."

The right-hander spent his winter in D.C. going through a rigorous training regimen, and he proceeded to go 18-6 with a 3.32 ERA and 1.038 WHIP, a career-high 251 strikeouts and a league-high 209 innings pitched over 33 starts. And perhaps that's enough to convince Martinez he should get the ball for Tuesday's winner-take-all game. Either as the starter or in relief of Max Scherzer.

"We're still going to see how it all plays out," the manager said. "Right now we're just taking things one day at a time. I told the boys: Just keep playing good baseball. Don't worry about what other teams are doing. Just keep showing up every day and playing good baseball, and things will take care of itself."

Strasburg has made a compelling case for Tuesday's assignment. He's been the most reliable member of the Nationals rotation from day one. There were a couple of blips along the way, most notably two starts in which he got torched by a Diamondbacks lineup that perhaps figured out he was tipping his pitches. But those were few and far between.

Strasburg allowed three or fewer runs in 23 of his 33 starts. He allowed one or fewer earned runs in 12 of the 33. He averaged 6 1/3 innings each time he took the mound.

"There's never really any kind of hiccup once he comes into September," catcher Yan Gomes said. "The guy took the mound like he was on a mission, and it's really nice playing behind that."

And Strasburg was at his best this afternoon, striking out 10 without issuing any walks, the lone run to cross the plate coming on César Hernández's leadoff homer in the fourth.

He was especially lights-out against his old teammate and fellow No. 1 draft pick. He faced Bryce Harper three times. He struck him out three times, once on a curveball, once on a fastball and once on a changeup.

"Stephen's got tremendous stuff," Gomes said. "I think today against Harp, but really against anyone, he's got all plus pitches that he can strike people out with. Today, it just happened that everything was working. We were able to set up Harp the way we wanted to and finish him off."

Harper's afternoon came to a particularly unceremonious end when he stepped up to bat one final time in the top of the eighth, the Phillies threatening to get back in the game. But 42-year-old reliever Fernando Rodney got him to ground into an inning-ending double play, much to the crowd's delight.

Thus concluded Harper's first of 13 seasons facing his former team. It didn't go especially well for the $330 million slugger. Harper hit .266 (17-for-64) with three homers, nine RBIs, 14 walks and 22 strikeouts in 19 head-to-head games.

The Nationals did pretty well against the Phillies as a whole. They finished 14-5 against their division rivals, winning 10 of their last 11 matchups.

And with today's victory, they reached the 90-win plateau, a remarkable number given their position four months ago. After starting the season 19-31, they needed to play .634 ball to get to 90 wins. They wound up playing .651 ball, reaching the magic number with three days to spare.

"Our goal leaving spring training is to get to 90 wins," Martinez said. "Typically, 90 wins gets you into the playoffs, so I like that number. But let's not end there. Let's try to get to 91 tomorrow."