Strasburg strikes out 11 as Nats end losing streak 3-2

ATLANTA - When things get a little rough around the edges, the Nationals turn to their streak-buster.

Stephen Strasburg came within one out of pitching eight innings and surrendered only two runs. He struck out a season-high 11 against one walk, scattering five hits as the Nationals edged the Braves 3-2.

The win snapped a season-high four-game losing streak.

"You can't really let what happened the day prior affect what you do out there," Strasburg said. "I just wanted to go out there and just give it everything I had. We put up some runs early. From that point, I was just trying to throw as many shutout innings as I could."

Strasburg's 11 strikeouts mark the 31st time in his career he has reached double digits in punchouts. He also struck out 10 versus the Braves here April 20. He was masterful because his curveball was filthy. Countless times he used it as the third-strike pitch.

"I think it's just about trusting it when you're out there," Strasburg said. "Not setting aside if you throw a bad one or a couple of bad ones in a row or don't have it. You just got to keep throwing it. That's what I told myself going in the game, is that I was just going to commit to every pitch."

His catcher, Jose Lobaton, said Strasburg (5-1) was working in every one of his pitches.

"When you get a guy like that, you're able to do whatever you want," Lobaton said. "Any count, any situation you know that you can trust him every pitch and that's what happened today. I feel like every pitch I was kind of like, whatever I call it's going to be good.

"I feel like curveball today was pretty sharp and changeup was working pretty good too. Fastball command was a strike, so if you throw strikes you're able to get outs."

But the Braves made it close in the eighth.

With two men on, Dansby Swanson rocketed a two-run double to right-center field that Bryce Harper could not get a glove on. The ball ricocheted off the wall for extra bases.

Swanson's hit came on a 3-2 pitch. The 2-2 pitch was close to a called third strike but was called a ball by home plate umpire David Rackley.

"I was just emptying the tank," Strasburg said. "I knew the situation and I made a good pitch there but didn't get the call. Oh well. So you got to go out there and make the next pitch. Unfortunately, he hit it off the wall."

Baker on the potential strikeout of Swanson that didn't arrive:

"We thought we had Swanson struck out on a very, very, very close pitch," Baker said. "Could've gone either way but didn't go our way. But when you're not going good, those kind of things go against you."

Koda Glover arrived and struck out Nick Markakis to end the eighth.

The Braves managed a single from Matt Kemp to start the ninth, but Glover got a spectacular line drive catch from Ryan Zimmerman off the bat of Matt Adams. Zimmerman stepped on first for the double play. Kurt Suzuki popped out to Zimmerman to end the game. Glover earned his third save.

"Had a pretty good laugh out there about that," Glover said of the hot-shot double play. "It was hit pretty hard. He made a good play. Sometimes it's good to be lucky."

But this one was about Strasburg as he locked up a season-high 7 2/3 innings. The last time he reached eight innings was July 15, 2016, in a 5-1 win over the Pirates. That was the win that propelled him to 13-0.

"Well, we needed every bit of it," manager Dusty Baker said. "He was very sharp. All his pitches were sharp. He threw a bunch of strikes and they played us tough. Every game here was tough. It's never easy. If you're looking for an easy job, this ain't the one. We love what he gave us."

Daniel Murphy hit his third homer in four games, No. 9 on the season, and Harper added a run-scoring single. Another run scored on a Zimmerman double play groundout.

"Yeah, that's big," Baker said of Murphy's homers. "When you're seeing Murph get locked in and Zim slowed down a little bit, Harp slowed down a little bit - it's hard to say they've slowed down when they're still hitting .350-something - but hopefully we'll get Anthony and other guys rolling again. We really need Trea (Turner) to catch some breaks, because he hit the ball a couple times pretty good today."

The win snapped a four-game losing streak and salvaged the final game of the three-game set in Atlanta. The Nationals return home for six games against the Mariners and the Padres, which start on Tuesday night.