Williams on Strasburg, Gonzalez and Roark

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg was forced to leave Tuesday's game after just three innings due to soreness underneath the shoulder blade on his throwing side. The injury did not require an MRI, but Strasburg did undergo a chiropractic adjustment.

"He reported feeling pretty good today," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "So we'll look to see when we can get him ready for his next one."

Strasburg is scheduled to start Monday night in Arizona. Williams indicated that Strasburg will have to make his bullpen session tomorrow and come out of it feeling strong in order to pitch in four days.

Tonight's starter Gio Gonzalez is coming off a stellar outing last Saturday in New York, where the left-hander held the Mets scoreless through seven innings, en route to his second win of the season.

"If he's able to land curveball early, it takes the other team off his fastball and the ability to throw that for a strike when he wants to and a ball when he wants to is important," Williams said. "We saw some change-up in fastball counts last time which really helped him out. And his pitch count stayed low enough to where he could manage it. All of those things provide opportunity for him to have success and we've seen that for the majority of his starts since the All-Star break last year."

Gonzalez finished the last nine games in 2014 with a 2.77 ERA. His blanking of the Mets this past weekend helped lower his ERA to 3.86 in five starts this season.

Williams has used right-hander Tanner Roark in every way possible throughout the first month of the season. Roark has appeared in long relief, as a late-inning set-up man and even as a closer. The former starter has a 3.00 ERA in 15 innings over 10 appearances this season.

"I think he's versatile in every aspect," Williams said. "It doesn't matter for him whether it's one inning, three innings or seven innings. It's all about getting that guy out. That pitch. That at-bat. And then he moves on from there. We've seen him the last couple of times out, his fastball has ticked up to 95 (mph) with a really good slider. In short stints, he can provide that. In longer stints, he'll provide the 91 to 92 with feel and all four pitches. It depends on what the situation calls for."