Williams on Strasburg, saving the 'pen and two big homers

With the bullpen thin, the Nationals needed a strong outing from their starter Thursday, and Stephen Strasburg came through. Strasburg held the Marlins to one run on three hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out 12 and walking one. That kept the Nats up 2-1 until they put up a five-spot in the eighth inning to pull away for a sweep-clinching 7-1 victory. It also made it so manager Matt Williams could get through the game with the few relievers he had fully available. Jerry Blevins tossed one scoreless inning. Aaron Barrett struck out Giancarlo Stanton, his only batter. And Rafael Soriano followed with a scoreless ninth. Williams indicated the Nats won't need to call up a reliever for the weekend series in Atlanta. "As of right now, no," he said. "We're good. We made it through today and I think we'll be OK." So what did Williams think of Strasburg, who hadn't fanned that many batters since last July and earned his first victory of the season? "It was great," Williams said at Nationals Park. "He shortened the 'pen, so he pitched really well. He used his fastball and kept his pitch count down today. So that's just an example of Strike 1. So he pitched well. ... "He threw some breaking balls, he threw a few sliders. But you get anybody that throws that hard, as a hitter you have to be in swing mode expecting fastball certainly. And his changeup was really good off of it today, and he used it a lot." Because Strasburg throws so hard, opposing hitters are often aggressive. And the Nats right-hander was able to neutralize that. "I just think he established fastball early and again, they came out aggressive. That happens with Stephen," Williams said. "Teams swing early against him, so he was able to establish it and work his changeup off of it. Strike 1's the key. ... "You want to get anybody as a hitter in swing mode and get them looking for fastball and throw them something else. But you have to establish that first and he did that today. So again, it's 95-plus and it's got a little movement, and then when he can throw his changeup off of it, it looks like a fastball coming out of his hand and it's got some depth to it, so you end up swinging over the top of it. But he was really good pounding the zone." Strasburg was removed having thrown just 98 pitches. Did Williams feel his starter had the stamina to keep going? "Yeah, he could've. He could've, but I think he gave us all he had today," Williams said. "And it set up so we could bring Blev in and Barrett behind him of course. So it was good, worked out." And boy did Barrett come through by getting Stanton to strike out swinging to end the eighth. "He doesn't have any history against him, but from what I saw from Aaron, he was aggressive, went right after him," Williams said. "(Stanton is) a very dangerous hitter and the head of the bat gets on the baseball, it travels. So he threw him some good sliders and he's got a good one, and he was aggressive with it, which I like." The Nats offense supported Strasburg with a pair of homers. Jayson Werth hit a two-run homer in the third to give Washington an early lead and Ian Desmond keyed a five-run eighth with a grand slam. So Werth homered for the second straight game and the Nats came up with their second slam in as many days. "It's great. We've been in that situation a couple of times in the last couple of days," Williams said. "Jayson hit a 3-0 pitch out of the ballpark and then Ian certainly got a ball to handle in his last at-bat. They're powerful, but the key for us is to get guys on base and it creates that opportunity for them." And the Nats go into a big series against the Braves with a 7-2 record coming off a sweep of the Marlins. "It's nice," Williams said. "Today's over, this series is over and we have to look forward to tomorrow and play well if we're going to have a chance to win. So we hope to continue that."