On Strasburg's velocity, outs on the bases and blocking the plate

PHOENIX - More from Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Diamondbacks to help tide you over before the Nationals' series finale on Sunday Night Baseball ...

* When Stephen Strasburg was giving up frozen-rope singles and then plunking opposing batters in the bottom of the first, all with a fastball that was registering only 92-93 mph, a few red flags went up in the Nationals dugout. It didn't help when everyone could see the right-hander massaging and stretching out his neck a few times.

"We were a little concerned," manager Davey Martinez said. "But he said he was fine. Just one of those days."

Strasburg quickly put to rest concerns about his physical well-being when he pitched out of his self-made jam in the first, his fastball ticking up to 95-96 mph. He further quashed any doubts when he struck out five batters in a row. And by the time he departed after 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball on 106 pitches, he had authored an exceptional start.

So what exactly happened during that out-of-the-ordinary first inning?

"Mechanically I felt a little off," he said. "I just tried to keep pitching. And once I was able to slow everything down a little bit more mechanically, it all started to sync up a little better."

Strasburg felt like he was able to get himself back on track by making in-game adjustments to his mechanics. Most notably, he tried to slow his delivery down and wait until his front foot landed on the mound before he released his pitch.

"When you're sped-up and you try and go harder, it's kind of counterproductive," he said. "So you have to have that balance, for me especially. I feel like when I'm more methodical and when I'm slower in my mechanics, I can maintain better posture with the leg kick. If I can just delay everything til I land and then go and get on the pitch, that's when it syncs up a lot better."

Strasburg rediscovered his fastball velocity by day's end; he wound up averaging 95 mph with his four-seamer, topping out at 96.8 mph. But they key to his success might well have been the extra reliance he developed on his curveball. Strasburg wound up throwing 35 of those during his start, the most he has thrown in any outing since July 3, 2017.

"I think that's the pitch that helped more than anything," he said. "Because a curveball is a change of speed, and it's not one that I'm necessarily trying to rear back and overthrow. Sometimes that's good when you're not throwing your fastball where you want to. You try to go to some off-speed, because it causes you to slow down naturally."

* The Nationals had countless opportunities to add on runs during the game, but as has too often been the case this season they were unable to do it, and thus added more pressure on their bullpen to be perfect pitching with a one-run lead late.

There were some ugly moments along the way, with some poor fundamentals leading directly to costly outs.

For example, with runners on the corners and one out in the fifth, Pedro Severino tried a squeeze bunt. He wound up tapping the ball back to the mound, leaving Howie Kendrick DOA at the plate.

"He bunted on his own," Martinez said. "He's swinging the bat really well. I didn't want to put on the safety squeeze right there. But he thought he could get the ball down to first base. And we talked about it (afterward), and I told him: 'Look, I really want you to swing the bat. You've been swinging good. You've got a lefty on the mound. I want you to swing.' But I'm not going to yell at him. He's just trying to play the game, and I like it."

One inning later, runners were again on the corners with Anthony Rendon at the plate. That's when Bryce Harper took off prematurely from first base and got caught in a rundown, though he couldn't sustain it long enough for Trea Turner to make a break for home.

Martinez attributed that out to some miscommunication between the dugout, first base coach Tim Bogar and Harper, who it seems thought they wanted him to try a double-steal.

"It was confusion with Bogey," Martinez said. "I wanted (Harper) to be aggressive, but with Rendon hitting, I wanted him to swing the bat. We thought we had a double-steal lined up, but I didn't want to do it with Rendon hitting."

* Later in the sixth, Turner wound up thrown out at the plate on Rendon's grounder to short, causing some more confusion.

Turner was thrown out easily, but Martinez noticed that Diamondbacks catcher John Ryan Murphy had been positioned directly in Turner's path the entire time and so came out of the dugout to ask the umpires if he could challenge the call and determine if Murphy was illegally blocking the plate.

Crew chief Joe West, who was umpiring third base, informed Martinez that particular play wasn't reviewable.

"I asked the question, because I was under the assumption ... the rule is an infield play like that, they won't call blocking the plate," Martinez said. "So I just wanted to double-check and confirm. And Joe West did a great job explaining it to me."

The play in question is addressed in Rule 6.01(i), paragraph two, which states that a catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner if he does not yet have possession of the ball ... except if he is reacting "to a throw that originates from a pitcher or drawn-in infielder."

Shortstop Nick Ahmed, along with the rest of the Diamondbacks infield, indeed was drawn-in for the possibility of a play at the plate, and that allowed Murphy to block the plate before he was in possession of the ball.

"(Turner) didn't have a clear path, but (West) said when the ball's in the infield, they typically won't call it," Martinez said. "I just wanted to make sure that we were correct and we knew what we were doing. Otherwise, if they said we could challenge, then I would've challenged."