Strasburg gains strength on humid night in 5-3 Nats win

PHILADELPHIA - Right-hander Stephen Strasburg, making his 200th major league start, labored early on against the Phillies in the series opener.

But on this hot and humid night, the temperature at 90 degrees at first pitch, Strasburg seemed to gain strength as the night wore on, and his team responded in the Nationals' 5-3 victory at Citizens Bank Park.

The best example of Strasburg's resiliency came in the fifth, when he faced the top of the Phillies order for the third time - Roman Quinn, Rhys Hoskins and César Hernández - and emphatically struck out the side.

He caught Hoskins and Hernández looking after the pair had connected on singles against him earlier in the game.

"There's so many little things in the game that hitters try and pick up and stuff, and you have to always look at certain tendencies you do and try not to do it," Strasburg said. "Because they're always looking for an advantage, trying to eliminate pitches."

Strasburg (7-7) wasn't hitting the 96, 97-mph fastball as he had been before his most recent injury slowed down his season. So Monday night he had to rely on setting up hitters with his off-speed variety, and it worked. The Phillies tallied only two more hits off of Strasburg after their two-run third inning.

"I thought he was great," said Nationals manager Davey Martinez. "I mean, he didn't have his 96, 97, but he pitched, and that was really encouraging to see. And he battled. We wanted to keep him around 100 pitches, so I just went out there and asked him if he had one more hitter, and he said 'Yeah, I'll get you an out,' and I said 'All right, here we go.' So I'm proud to see him go out there and battle like that and get a win. That was a big win for him."

Catcher Matt Wieters said Strasburg didn't just learn how to pitch as he did Monday when his off-speed pitches are working better than his fastball. He has been doing this for a while and understands how to get hitters out in different ways.

"Yeah, Stras was a pitcher when he does throw 97, 98 mph," Wieters said. He's got great pitches and he knows how to use them, and he was able to get himself back into counts with his off-speed today and he was able to locate his fastball and throw some good high fastballs when he needed to."

Strasburg said endurance was an issue in his first start back from the disabled list last week. He felt he had his wind better a bit in this second start.

"It was progress," Strasburg said. "So, it was just a matter of getting ready for the next one now."

The Nationals had little trouble seeing Zach Eflin, and took advantage of some less-than-stellar Phillies defense.

Juan Soto's first-inning single, his third in a row, scored Bryce Harper to make it 1-0. Wieters homered to lead off the second and it was 2-0.

Wieters said he used a new bat for the homer after he realized too late Sunday that he had been using a broken bat for two games.

Even with that handicap this past weekend, Wieters has hit .326 in his last 15 games and has hit safely in his last seven starts.

"Just knowing the strike zone a little bit better, getting pitches to hit has been big," Wieters said. "At this point, I'm trying to recognize it out of their hand as quick as possible and then make a reaction from there."

Eflin's fielding error in the fourth opened the door for two more runs to give the Nats the lead back, 4-2. Eaton added a run-scoring double in the fifth to make it 5-2.

Strasburg's only major trouble came in the third, when he walked Nick Williams to lead off the frame in an eight-pitch at-bat. One batter later, Quinn tripled to score Williams. After another walk, Hernández singled to score Quinn and tie the game at 2-2. But when the Nats quickly regained the lead, that seemed to energize Strasburg.

Martinez doesn't believe that the lower velocity on Strasburg's fastball right now is anything to panic about.

"I think it's just more reps for him, but he was very content that he went out there and made some good pitches," Martinez said. "His breaking ball was good. His changeup was good. He gave us exactly what he needed."

The bullpen then came in and did their job.

Tim Collins struck out two in a three-up, three-down seventh frame. Hoskins homered off of Ryan Madson to open the eighth. Madson, who had just been reinstated from the disabled list earlier in the day, sustained focus and recorded three outs in a row to get out of the inning. Justin Miller arrived in the ninth and kept the Phillies off the board for his first save of the season.

"Yeah, any time I'm out on a big-league mound I'm happy after what I had to go through this offseason, everything like that," Miller said. "I'm just glad to be out there and helping the team."

Miller shared a great story about his first ever save in the major leagues while with the Rockies in 2015.

"It was against Chicago. Came in in the eighth," Miller recalled. "I think we were up by three runs. They had (John) Axford getting ready to come in for the ninth and we scored a couple more and it put it out of a save situation, so they just left me back out there.

"And I think it was (Rockies catching coach) Rene Lachemann told me if I go three-up, three-down they'll give me a $100. And so I went three-up, three-down, and I actually got a save, too. I didn't know it was a save opportunity. It was nice."

Notes: Soto went 2-for-4 with two singles, a walk, a run and his 48th RBI on the season. The Nats are 22-6 in games in which Soto has at last one RBI. The Nats are also 19-4 in games when Soto connects on more than one hit. Besides Wieters, Adam Eaton, Trea Turner and Soto all contributed RBI base hits.