Williams on Strasburg: "His stuff will show itself in the end"

These aren't the best of times for Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg. Curious ankle and back discomfort surrounded the better part of the week leading up to his seventh start last night. After the Diamondbacks shelled him for eight runs on eight hits, including two homers, it seemed as if the only positive Nationals manager Matt Williams could grasp for was that Strasburg seemed healthy.

"Certainly not what he wanted," Williams said to reporters in Arizona. "The fact that he got through it and felt good physically was good. Fastball was good, but he didn't locate it and got beat on his off-speed pitches."

Strasburg ran into difficulty in the first. A two-out walk to Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt led to two runs on a double by third baseman Aaron Hill and left Strasburg in an early hole.

Center fielder Ender Inciarte tagged Strasburg for a leadoff homer in the third after the Nats had pulled within one. An inning later, the wheels fell off. A triple, two hard hit singles and an error by Strasburg led to an enormous three-run homer from Diamondbacks right fielder Mark Trumbo.

That was it for Strasburg, who failed to make it through the fourth inning for the second straight start. He fell to 2-4 while his ERA skyrocketed to 6.06, worst among all Nats starters by far. It's even darker on the road, where his ERA jumps to 8.10 with one win and two losses.

"I just know that he's got great stuff," Williams said. "His stuff will show itself in the end. We've got all the confidence in the world in him. It hasn't been his best stretch, but he's a competitor. He goes out there every fifth day ... and goes at 'em. The concern coming out of the last one was his health, and I think he passed that hurdle, which is good. So now he'll get back into the swing of it."

The Diamondbacks poured six more runs on lefties Sammy Solis and Matt Grace in 2 2/3 innings after Strasburg departed. After right-hander Aaron Barrett calmed things down with a perfect seventh, Williams decided he didn't want to tax his relievers any further.

So with the Nationals trailing by 10 in the eighth, outfielder Clint Robinson took the mound for the first time in his short major league career. The 6'5", 30-year old left-hander hadn't pitched since high school. With a fastball topping out at 81 mph, Robinson struck out Hill on three pitches while delivering a scoreless frame with only one hit.

"It's never something you want to do, but sometimes in games like this we just can't stretch our bullpen any further," Williams said.

It was the first time in Nationals history (2005-present) that the team used a position player to pitch. On a night where the Nationals trailed big for most of it, Robinson's moment seemed to provide a late-inning rallying point.

The Nats will take it into this afternoon where they'll attempt to win their fifth series in a row with lefty Gio Gonzalez on the mound.