Strasburg dominates late to improve to 4-0 for first time

ST. LOUIS - Take a snapshot of Stephen Strasburg's first trip through the Cardinals lineup last night and you find a whole lot of hard-hit balls, four of them landing for hits, leading to a pair of runs.

Take a snapshot of Strasburg's second trip through that lineup and you find better results, though still a couple of hits including his third double surrendered in only three innings.

Now take a snapshot of Strasburg's third trip through the very same lineup and you find utter domination: seven strikeouts in a span of eight batters, the only exception a Matt Holliday single that led to nothing of consequence.

Ever heard of a pitcher getting better as the night went on? This was as good an example of it as you'll ever see.

"Like most good starters, if you don't get 'em early, you don't usually get 'em," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. "He locked it in after that first inning or two because they were hitting some balls pretty hard off of him early, and he kept his composure."

That might well have been the key to Strasburg's success. Despite some tenuous moments early, he never lost his composure and wound up seizing back control of the game. It's an important step for the 27-year-old, one he has slowly taken over the last year or so.

"I think it just comes with experience and maturing," he said. "It's easy to kind of hit the panic button after a couple runs early and stuff, but that's not how I want to go about it. If it's not my day, it's not my day. But I'm going to fight until the very end."

Strasburg more than fought until the very end. He excelled.

Using a well-timed mixture of fastballs and changeups, he mowed through St. Louis' lineup in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. All seven of his strikeouts during that stretch were swinging, five of them on changeups, one of them on the slider he has begun to perfect this season.

"I thought it was working really well tonight, especially against these guys," Strasburg said of the slider, which he threw 15 times (11 for strikes). "I feel like it was better than the previous game because I was able to locate close enough to make it look like a strike. Whereas last game, I was throwing some that were easy takes. It's just another look. I'm not going to abandon the other ones."

No, if anything Strasburg is using his entire repertoire now. According to BrooksBaseball.net, he threw five different pitches during his seven-inning start last night. He threw his four-seam fastball 35 times. He threw each of his four other pitches (two-seam fastball, curveball, changeup, slider) between 15-19 times, impressive balance.

"He's no longer a kid now," Baker said. "Now he's a pitcher that knows what to do and what to throw."

The end result of all this: Strasburg is 4-0 for the first time in his career. He sports a 2.25 ERA, 40 strikeouts and only eight walks over 36 innings.

Over his last 18 starts since returning from a neck injury, Strasburg is now 12-2 with a 1.91 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 7.55 strikeout-to-walk ratio.