Top stories of 2017: Strasburg steps up

As we count down the final days of 2017, we're counting down the most significant stories of the year for the Nationals. Some are positive. Some are negative. All helped define this baseball season in Washington. We'll reveal two per day through New Year's Eve, continuing right now with ...

No. 4: Strasburg steps up

Through the first seven seasons of his big league career, Stephen Strasburg seemed to be noted more for what he hadn't accomplished than for what he had done on the mound. He had all the talent in the world, but he too often was injured. He made only one postseason start despite three playoff appearances by the Nationals. He was very good, but never great when his team really needed him.

This might well have been the season in which Strasburg changed that narrative, though, culminating with his pair of brilliant starts in October.

By any measure, this was the best season of the right-hander's career. His 2.52 ERA dwarfed his mark from any previous season (with the exception of his five-start, post-Tommy John surgery return in 2011). His 1.015 WHIP also was his best since that abbreviated 2011 campaign. And he was recognized for his efforts by being named a Cy Young Award finalist for the first time. (He wound up finishing third behind teammate Max Scherzer and Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.)

The only real black mark on Strasburg's season was his four-week stint on the disabled list in late summer due to a nerve impingement in his elbow. Even so, that stint was seen as more of a precaution than anything, a move made to help ensure the pitcher was at full strength for the postseason, not five July and August starts with his team running away with a division title.

And it was hard to argue with the results. Strasburg made 10 starts after returning from the DL, including the postseason. He went 6-2 with an 0.67 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 85 strikeouts and 13 walks in 67 2/3 innings. He surrendered an earned run in only one of his final 66 innings. He surrendered a run-scoring hit to only five of the final 260 batters he faced.

The defining moments of Strasburg's season, though, came in October. With Scherzer pushed back to Game 3 of the National League Division Series due to a hamstring strain, Strasburg got the ball in Game 1. The Nats lost, 3-0, but he was brilliant in allowing only two unearned runs over seven innings.

Five days later at Wrigley Field, after a wild 12-hour stretch in which he initially wasn't going to start due to an illness, Strasburg took the mound with his team facing elimination and delivered the best performance of his life. He shut out the Cubs over seven innings, striking out 12 and earning praise from every corner of the baseball world for his gutsy effort.

That effort may have become a footnote, thanks to the Nationals' subsequent loss in Game 5, but nobody can blame Strasburg for his team's latest postseason failure. When he was needed most, he stepped up. And in the process perhaps changed the narrative of his career.