Janssen's rehab outing went so well, he feels like he "could pitch today"

Nationals right-hander Casey Janssen (right shoulder inflammation) surprised even himself with how good he felt today following his first rehab outing Thursday in Woodbridge, Va., for high Single-A Potomac. "Definitely a nice step, probably a bigger step than I originally thought it was going to be," Janssen said following one scoreless inning to begin Game 2 versus Wilmington. He faced three batters, threw nine pitches and struck out one. Janssen did not allow a base runner. He said he felt in a groove in warmups and that made him think it might be a good day. That pleased him, because he did have some rocky outings while in Florida last month at the Nationals' training facility. "Just everything, the whole combination. The way my arm was moving," Janssen said. "Even in the bullpen...the sharpness of the breaking stuff and command, of course. And then, I don't know what the numbers were, but it looked like I picked up my velocity a little bit. It went a little better than I was anticipating coming from Florida where it wasn't as impressive." Janssen did not have the velocity numbers, but he felt like he was hitting a pretty good speed with his fastball. Even more critical was his control. "I've always been a command guy," Janssen said. "There's no magic number velocity-wise to get to because I've always needed to hit my spots anyway. I think what I feel my arm can (handle), which it has been. The sharpness, the command, that stuff is going to be there. If it's not right out of the gates it's going to be there. It won't take long." Manager Matt Williams said during pregame that this was good news to progress Janssen forward, similar to how they would treat him during a normal February and March. Janssen is scheduled to pitch one inning for Potomac on Sunday. "It's the normal spring training stuff," Williams said. "The fact that he is going every third (day) now is pretty normal." "It feels normal," Janssen said. "I feel like I could pitch today. I haven't thrown yet, but I anticipate it going well which is a nice step. If I continue to feel like I anticipate feeling, we can move things along." Janssen said they want him to throw back-to-back games by the end of his rehab and he has "no problem doing it." "The fact that he's feeling good allows us to make that next step, which would be to pitch, a day off, and pitch again, and then look to at back-to-back to make sure he's able to respond to it," Williams confirmed.