Strasburg's 14-strikeout gem lifts Nats over Miami again (updated)

No matter how unimposing the opponent, it's just not that easy to keep winning every single night. Yes, the Nationals are facing an especially fortuitous portion of their schedule. But aside from one hiccup Saturday in Detroit, they are taking care of business like nobody's business.

Tonight's 3-1 victory - made possible by 7 1/3 innings of brilliance from Stephen Strasburg, home runs from Brian Dozier and Matt Adams and late escape acts from both Fernando Rodney and Sean Doolittle - was the Nationals' fifth in a row over the Marlins in the last week-plus, their ninth in 12 games vs. Miami this season.

The Nats are now 7-1 during this two-week stretch against the Marlins, Tigers and Royals to close out the season's first half. They've won 25 of 35 overall and at 44-41 are three games over the .500 mark for the first time this year.

"You've got to take everything you've got, whether it's an advantageous schedule or whatever it is," catcher Yan Gomes said. "Everybody's going to go through it, and we're really taking big advantage of it right now. We've just got to keep rolling, and just keep going with it."

It's not supposed to be this easy, though, certainly not for a team that only six weeks ago needed everything in the world to go right just to win one baseball game. Now a team that had the National League's second-worst record on May 23 could find itself tied for a wild card berth by the end of the night.

"I think the biggest thing - and it's been there all year - the starting pitching has been absolutely outstanding," Doolittle said. "I think our bullpen, we've had to cover the fewest innings in baseball. Is that still true? I don't know. (Note: It is.) Our starting staff gives us a chance to win every single night, no matter who's out there."

Yes, indeed. With the rotation in full-scale dominance mode these days, anything seems possible. And Strasburg has been a big part of it, capped by tonight's 14-strikeout gem on a brutally muggy evening.

Strasburg, for whatever reason, has a reputation for succumbing to heat and humidity. Perhaps too many folks remember one 104-degree afternoon in Atlanta years ago when he was forced to depart early with heat exhaustion.

Whatever the case, the narrative doesn't match the results. Strasburg has been quite effective pitching in heat over the entirety of his career, thank you very much. This was the 20th time he's taken the mound with the temperature over 90 degrees. His ERA in those starts is 3.69. He has allowed two or fewer runs in 12 of those 20 starts.

One simple-yet-unexpected tweak Strasburg has made to help him get through nights like this: He no longer puts "Red Hot" ointment on his arm before starts, realizing it doesn't have the desired effect when the temperature and humidity are high.

"I've kind of tried doing things to not use it this year, and I think it's really helped my body temperature," he said. "As you get older, you start caking it on more and more, and it doesn't really help me, being fair-skinned out there in the humidity. So I've tried to not use it this, and it has seemed to help."

It also helps when Strasburg has got command of all three of his pitches from the get-go, especially a devastating changeup, as he did tonight when he struck out four of the Marlins' first six batters. He issued one walk (in the top of the first) and two singles (each with two outs and nobody on). He struck out the side in the fourth on nine pitches, the first "Immaculate Inning" of his career and the fourth in club history to join Max Scherzer (twice) and Jordan Zimmermann, even though he didn't realize it until after the fact.

"It kind of dawned on me a little later on," he said. "The first pitch of that inning, I threw it on the plate but we were set up in and I threw it away. For some reason, I didn't really think it was called a strike. But I guess it was."

And yet there was never any guarantee Strasburg would emerge with his 11th consecutive win over Miami, because his teammates couldn't push across a run for much of the night against Sandy Alcantara. The All-Star right-hander got himself in trouble in the second, third and fourth innings, but the Nationals couldn't convert, going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Finally the bottom of the sixth arrived, and with it a much-needed big blast. With two outs and an 0-2 count, Dozier hammered a breaking ball from Alcantara deep to left for his 13th homer of the season and a historic homer for the club.

Dozier's blast extended the Nationals' streak of games with a home run to 17, a new franchise record to best the 1999 Expos.

"We're starting to hit home runs," manager Davey Martinez said. "We're starting to hit the ball, and everything just clicks, and we just keep rolling."

Dozier's homer would prove critical, because it's all the offense the Nats provided Strasburg. So when the right-hander took the mound for the top of the eighth, his pitch count approaching triple digits, he had only minimal margin for error. And he put that to the test right away.

Strasburg issued a leadoff walk to JT Riddle, then plunked Bryan Holaday in the back with one of his only wayward changeups of the night. With the tying run on base and Rodney warming, Martinez left his starter in to face pinch-hitter Brian Anderson, a move that paid off when Strasburg got him swinging on a curveball for his 14th strikeout of the game.

Now Martinez walked to the mound and took the ball from Strasburg, who departed to a standing ovation following one the best starts of his career. Of his 110 total pitches, 80 were strikes.

"We talked in between innings there, and he was adamant about going back out (for the eighth)," Martinez said. "He knows he has some time off (with the All-Star break), but I told him I wanted to definitely keep him at 110 pitches. And he was good. He was really good."

It would not mean much, however, if Rodney could not escape the jam. Which he made even more perilous upon serving up a line drive single to Miguel Rojas to load the bases. But as he is wont to do, Rodney cleaned up his mess. He got Harold Ramirez to ground to short, and with Ramirez falling to the ground and never leaving the batter's box, the Nationals turned an easy 6-4-3 double play to ensure Strasburg's gem - like so many others by this staff over the last month-plus - would not go to waste.

"That's why starting the season, people had us as favorites," Gomes said. "Pitching staff is going to lead us. And these guys are starting to show it. Our offense is starting to show it. Our defense is starting to show it. We're hitting our stride at the right time going into the All-Star break."