Williams ready to go after "interesting spring"

TAMPA - Right-hander Stephen Strasburg turned in his best spring start in today's 8-2 win over the Yankees in the Nationals' final Grapefruit League game. Strasburg limited the Yankees to just one run on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.

"It's just progress," said Strasburg. "I think I felt good a couple starts ago and then I twisted my ankle and pushed everything backwards. Now I think I'm going in the right direction."

Strasburg's breaking balls were devastating at times.

"Sharp," said Nationals manager Matt Williams. "Throwing it for strikes when he wanted to and then out of the zone when he wanted to, too. Good depth to his changeup, too. I think he's ready."

The Nats have started Strasburg on opening day the past three seasons but this year the tall righty will wait until the third game before he takes the mound against the Mets next Thursday at Nationals Park. Max Scherzer will start opening day for the Nationals.

"I'm excited to head up north," said Strasburg. "I think we got a good group of guys here and we're hungry. We just gotta keep plugging along and win as many games as we can. I know we got five guys that are extremely talented. We got five bulldogs out there, so we just got to stick together and go out there and give it everything."

Meanwhile, Williams wasn't prepared to make any cuts on Friday. He wanted to get one more look at the remaining players competing for spots in Saturday's exhibition game against the Yankees before setting his final 25-man roster for opening day.

The Nationals must set their 25-man roster by 3 p.m. on Sunday.

"We've got a couple question marks still," said Williams. "Not prepared to do that yet, but after tomorrow certainly. We've got questions in the left side of our bullpen. We've got lefty off the bench. Those things are still out there. We'll have to see how the next couple of days go."

First baseman/outfielder Mike Carp is one of those lefty bats off the bench that Williams is referencing. Carp hadn't done much this spring, but in the seventh inning of today's game, he finally unleashed his first homer and it was a big blast.

"Got himself deep in a count and he's got power to straightaway center field," said Williams. "Certainly pull power, we know that. That was a good swing, put a good swing on it."

Outfielders Denard Span (core muscle surgery) and Jayson Werth (shoulder surgery) will make the trip to D.C., to be part of the opening day festivities on Monday. Third baseman Anthony Rendon will stay behind in Florida to continue his rehab on his sprained left MCL.

Williams stood behind the cage before the game and observed Span taking a full batting practice session. It seems to be a good sign for Span, whose timetable was four to eight weeks for recovery when he had underwent surgery in early March.

Though it seems likely that Werth will begin the season on the disabled list, Williams still hasn't officially ruled him out. The 35-year-old will play in minor league games on Saturday and Sunday before flying back to D.C. He's received as many as five at-bats in a game and played seven innings.

"The last thing I want is to start the season with his shoulder cranky because there's not enough to time to get out of it," said Williams. "All indications are that he's feeling very good and continuing to take at-bats and play in live games."

The news was not as favorable for right-hander Casey Janssen. The reliever has been dealing with right shoulder discomfort that forced a MRI last weekend. Williams expects he'll start the season on the DL, which is a significant blow to the back end of the Nats bullpen. Janssen was expected to handle the eighth-inning duties vacated when Tyler Clippard was traded to Oakland.

"He still a little bit sore," Williams said of Janssen. "We had hoped that he would start his throwing program back today, but he's just a touch sore still, so we want to make sure we get him through that. So that's one of those day-to-day things that he if he starts feeling good, then we can start him back on his program again."

It was a roller coaster ride for the reigning National League Manager of the Year during the exhibition season. Williams dealt with significant injuries to Rendon and Span, and nagging ones to infielder Yunel Escobar and Strasburg. Now he's prepared to take his team into a marathon of a season filled with so many expectations.

"It's an interesting spring, to say the least," he said. "That part of it's over. Here's over. Now we get to get back to our own park, which is good, and give everybody a little shot of energy in that regard. We're ready to start. We're ready to go and give Max the ball on opening day and see what we get."