Strasburg mixes his pitches again for sixth straight victory

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg kept an aggressive Colorado batting order guessing on Tuesday night, allowing his club to build a steady lead before the Nationals blew the Rockies away in the end, 11-1, before 22,612 at Nats Park.

Strasburg tossed six shutout innings for his sixth straight win, matching the second-longest streak of his career, pushing his record to 13-4. He surrendered only three hits, struck out eight, and walked two. The three base hits were doubles by Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon and a single to Nolan Arenado. But Colorado was unable to mount any rallies after each of those base hits.

"He was good, real good," said Nationals manager Davey Martinez. "Really impressed. It's huge. That Colorado team, they swing the bat. They're good hitters. But he was good. That last inning, it didn't look like he was struggling much. He still had a lot of attack. But he got up to 105-plus pitches, and to me, that's plenty."

Strasburg finished with 107 pitches and has not lost since June 15 against the Braves, winning for the 10th time in his past 11 decisions.

Strasburg also contributed on offense again, singling in his first at-bat, his fourth hit in a row dating back to the Atlanta game last week. Against the Braves July 18, Strasburg smacked a three-run homer in a 13-4 win.

"Seriously, tomorrow, he'll be a pinch-hitter," Martinez joked. "He's swinging the bat well. I'll take a 4-for-5. You want me to move him up to four (in the lineup)?"

Strasburg shrugged off pinch-hitting possibilities ahead of Wednesday's doubleheader: "Well, streak's over. I'll take a day."

Strasburg continues to mix his pitches to baffle hitters, using his curveball more than 30 percent of the time, much more than he had employed the pitch in the past. He used it about 18 percent of the time last season.

"I feel like I've always had a feel for it," Strasburg said of his curveball. "I just think it's using all my weapons as best I can, and I think as you get older and stuff, you might be a tick down on your velocity, so you have to pitch a bit more, especially when guys are trying to get to your fastball early in the count because they don't want to see the other stuff later."

That has been a key for Strasburg this season. He came into the league with a fastball that could reach 99-102 mph. Now he is getting around the mid-90's with his four-seam pitch. So he mixes in his other pitches, the curveball and changeup, and has reintroduced his two-seam sinker, which he all but abandoned two seasons ago.

"He's evolving," said shortstop Trea Turner. "For me, the velo is dropping but it's still got life. I wouldn't say dropping, as opposed to when he was throwing 100 mph early in his career. He's still striking people out, still got unbelievable stuff, and I think that's something that Max has done in his career, too, is they evolve. I think that's why they are so good. For me, it's just nice to see him get people out in so many different ways."

Strasburg struck out eight on the night: getting David Dahl and Ryan McMahon early with changeups, Chris Iannetta with the curveball on a called third strike, Peter Lambert and Story with curveballs in the third inning, and Dahl for a second time on a four-seam fastball. He then forced two of the Rockies' perennial best hitters to strike out in the fifth and sixth frames: Blackmon with a changeup and Arenado with the four-seam fastball.

"Just keep making pitches," Strasburg said. "I think they got a pretty lengthy lineup there, and guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark, and just got to be in the moment and just make one pitch."

Strasburg induced weak contact by mixing the four-seam with the changeup, which dropped the velocity from 93-94 mph to 87-88 mph.

"You want to use everything that you have, and that changeup was an improvement from the last start, so I was pretty happy with that," Strasburg said.

Strasburg is now two wins away from matching his career high of 15 victories, reached in 2012, 2016 and 2017. Strasburg won 16 games in a row from September 2015 to July 2016.