Strasburg will make his next start, Mattheus has foot injury

PHILADELPHIA - If Stephen Strasburg taking part in a game of Ultimate Frisbee on the field at Citizens Bank Park wasn't indication enough that the Nationals' ace is feeling just fine health-wise, manager Davey Johnson confirmed today that his ace came out of yesterday's start OK. Johnson said he wasn't really concerned about Strasburg's status, and he doesn't expect there to be any lingering effects from Strasburg's biceps tightness/overall fatigue. "He's going to make his next start, that's all I know," Johnson said. Johnson and Strasburg apparently had a brief conversation as the Nationals were shaking hands on the field after yesterday's game, and Johnson was under the impression the two men were on the same page that Strasburg had been feeling some tightness in his right biceps. That's the message Johnson passed along in his postgame press conference, but Strasburg gave a different medical evaluation in his session with reporters, saying it wasn't his biceps but overall fatigue. "I read the paper today, and we're speaking a different language to each other," Johnson said with a laugh. "But that's Stras, everything's magnified. But he's fine." While Strasburg might not be dealing with any legitimate injury issues, Ryan Mattheus apparently is. Johnson revealed that Mattheus has been dealing with a left foot injury the last two weeks or so, and the righty re-aggravated it while running in the outfield before today's game. Mattheus will undergo X-rays on the foot here in Philadelphia and will probably go visit a specialist in Baltimore tomorrow. After working an inning yesterday, Mattheus wouldn't have been available today even if he was healthy, Johnson said. Completely independent of Mattheus' situation, Chien-Ming Wang will be here in Philly tomorrow to throw a side session. If Mattheus needs to go on the DL, one easy solution would be to promote Wang and put him in the bullpen. Wang would obviously be a long-reliever and thus wouldn't fill Mattheus' role, but he would give the Nats another proven arm in the 'pen. "But we're going to not do that until we get additional studies done," Johnson said. "And from the way (Mattheus) was talking, he'll be fine tomorrow."