Nats ride homers, Strasburg, altered bullpen to 4-2 victory

PHILADELPHIA - Ryan Zimmerman homered again, which is no surprise. Anthony Rendon homered, which is not a surprise this week. But a Stephen Strasburg home run? That was most surprising and elicited the biggest gasp among the crowd at Citizens Bank Park tonight.

Strasburg's solo blast, only the second of his career, helped the Nationals open up a lead tonight. His heavy workload on the mound held the Phillies in check and ultimately put his team in position for a 4-2 victory in the opener of its weekend series.

Strasburg pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, matching his career high with 119 pitches thrown, and appeared to be battling through a left leg ailment in his final frame. The Nats' ever-reconfiguring bullpen cobbled together the last 3 1/3 innings to finish off the club's 20th win in 29 games to begin the season, with Matt Albers the latest in a growing line of relievers to record the save.

With Shawn Kelley (lower back strain) placed on the 10-day disabled list only 15 minutes before first pitch, Koda Glover (hip impingement) already on the DL and Blake Treinen and Joe Blanton continuing to struggle, manager Dusty Baker had to find a new late-inning combo.

Tonight that included left-hander Enny Romero, who pitched out of a Treinen-created jam in the seventh and then retired the side in the eighth, striking out three of the four batters he faced. And then it featured Albers, who in the 461st major league appearance of his career recorded his first save. In the process, Albers became the fifth different reliever to be credited with a save in the Nationals' first 29 games of the season.

Zimmerman and Rendon clubbed back-to-back homers, both to right-center field, off Nick Pivetta (the Nationals prospect who two years ago was traded to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon) in the top of the fifth.

Zimmerman's homer was his league-leading 12th of the young season, leaving the veteran first baseman with 31 RBIs. It was his sixth opposite-field home run already this year, with an additional three having been hit to center field. Add a single and a double to his evening, and Zimmerman now sports a .437 batting average.

Rendon's homer was his fourth of the season and his fourth this week, coming on the heels of his historic three-homer performance Sunday against the Mets.

Strasburg, though, was the story of the game, both for what he did on the mound and at the plate. He hammered Pivetta's second-inning pitch 404 feet to left-center field, then circled the bases for the first time since May 20, 2012 when he took Baltimore's Wei-Yin Chen deep at Nationals Park.

Strasburg expended plenty of effort on the mound, as well. Though he didn't allow a run, he had only one 1-2-3 inning against a Phillies lineup that made him work.

After knocking down a sixth-inning comebacker in which he fell to the ground, Strasburg appeared to be dealing with an issue with his lower left leg. It was concerning enough for manager Dusty Baker and head athletic trainer Paul Lessard to come check on him, but the right-hander stayed in the game and wound up facing two more batters before departing with his pitch count at 119. That matched his career high, set June 8, 2012 at Boston.