Strasburg hopeful of making next start after L.A. scratch

LOS ANGELES - Stephen Strasburg first felt what he described as "a little pinch" in his upper back Saturday while lifting weights in San Diego, but over the course of the next 48 hours, the Nationals right-hander and his club held out hope he'd still be able to make his scheduled start tonight against the Dodgers.

It wasn't until sometime after 5 p.m. PDT, less than two hours until first pitch, when Strasburg realized the treatment he had been receiving wasn't going to be enough to allow him to take the mound.

"When the meds didn't really seem to help much ... I was like, it's just not worth the risk," he said.

And so one of the most-anticipated matchups of the season - Strasburg vs. Clayton Kershaw, on national TV and in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 44,712 - never came to fruition. Kershaw dominated, as expected. Emergency starter Yusmeiro Petit gave everything he had. The Nationals lost 4-1.

The good news, from the Nationals' perspective: Strasburg's upper back strain does not appear to be serious, and they hope he'll be able to make his next scheduled start on Sunday in Milwaukee.

"We were eager to see it, also," manager Dusty Baker said of the potential Strasburg-Kershaw showdown. "But we couldn't risk losing this guy for a period of time, just because we were all eager to see it. We've got to do what's best for the ballclub and best for the team."

Strasburg dealt with nagging back and neck issues during the first half of the 2015 season, ailments that he believes were the byproduct of a minor ankle sprain suffered in spring training that he tried to pitch through, causing his mechanics to go awry.

This is a totally unrelated back injury, but the memory of last spring admittedly played into the decision not to pitch tonight.

"I think it's something that's manageable," he said. "It's gotten better; that's the big thing. It's just still there. I just don't want to make the same mistake I made last year and have it become a long-term thing. I just want to nip it in the bud, and get ready for the next one."

Though Strasburg knew for two days there was a chance he wouldn't be able to start, the Nationals didn't inform Petit he might be needed until today. That left the veteran right-hander in something of a no-win situation, forced to make an emergency start with little notice, having not been stretched out recently at all. And knowing his margin for error with Kershaw with slim at best.

Given all that, what Petit wound up doing - six innings of three-run ball on 94 pitches, the most he had thrown in three years - was invaluable to the Nationals, even in loss.

"He didn't do a good job," Baker said. "He did a great job."

Petit, who makes his living pitching in any role required of him out of the bullpen, made the most of his opportunity to start in a pinch. He allowed only five hits, but three of those five Los Angeles batters who reached base wound up scoring. Justin Turner and Joc Pederson each homered, and Corey Seager scored on Turner's RBI single in the fourth.

As much as they hoped for a positive result, the Nationals really needed innings more than anything out of Petit. In that regard, he succeeded in impressive fashion given the circumstances. Issuing only one walk all night, he kept his pitch count low enough that Baker was able to keep sending him out there through the sixth.

If nothing else, that eased the workload of a Nationals bullpen that has been heavily taxed over the last week, especially after closer Jonathan Papelbon landed on the disabled list with a strained intercostal muscle.

"That's part of my job," Petit said through interpreter Octavio Martinez. "I have to be prepared for a situation like today. That's what I've been doing in the past in my career. I just have to be prepared for whenever I'm needed, like the situation that came up tonight, and just go out there and do my job."